The developing story of Virat Kohli against the moving ball

How many batsmen have scored more than 70 International centuries? How many batsmen have managed to maintain an average of 50+ across all the formats? How many batsmen have scored more than 22000 international runs? One can literally count on fingers the number of batsmen who have achieved these feats. In fact, Virat Kohli is the only batsmen in the history of the game to have averaged 50+ across formats.

Yet even the great King Kohli has some flaws in his game that keep appearing time and again. It all started in England in 2014 when his technique against the moving ball was completely exposed by James Anderson and co. on numerous occasions. With the pitches offering decent amount of assistance, all they had to do was pitch the ball on off stump and wait for Virat to commit a mistake. He kept getting dismissed in a similar fashion and could only manage an average of 13 across five Test matches.

Experts thought that this weakness will become a major barrier in his career and he would struggle to succeed at the highest level. But Virat was least concerned with the talks surrounding his form and technique.

Kohli has a golden summer Down Under

He rectified his technique, covered his off-stump, shortened his backlift slightly and he was back amongst big runs. Later that year India toured Australia and Kohli managed a staggering 692 runs in 4 Test matches.

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But India's tour of England 2018 was always going to be the biggest challenge of his career. He stood up brilliantly to the challenge and ended the series with 593 runs in 5 Tests proving it once again why he is known as the best batsmen of this era.

Although India lost the series in England, Kohli proved why he is the no.1 batsman in the world

But the question is, has he really rectified his technique? Champions Trophy 2017 final, World Cup 2019 semi-final and the recently concluded India's tour of New Zealand have all been testimonies of the fact the batsman still faces issues with the moving ball. His troubles against the moving ball comes back to haunt his team in crucial fixtures time and again. In home conditions where pitches don't assist swing bowling much, he can pretty much do everything with a bat in hand but winning away is what actually separates good teams from great teams.

Indian team would hope that there premiere batsman is able to rectify these errors before they leave for Down Under later this year.

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Also see | Opinion: It is merely a slight dip from the peak for Virat Kohli