To counter swing initially in his innings, ex-Pakistan cricketer Wasim Akram believes, Indian batting great Virat Kohli should bat with a slightly open-chested stance.
While Kohli’s widely acknowledged issue has been outside off-stump, Akram also highlighted a problem for the balls coming into the right-hander. The ‘Sultan of Swing’ suggested the former Indian skipper to come up with a method to counter the new-ball swinging into his body.
Just for the first couple of overs, Akram reckons, Kohli should look to play straight with his front leg slightly opened up, especially against the left-arm pacers.
“I think Kohli should bat with an open stance initially, just for the first couple of overs to negotiate the incoming delivery,”
“With this, the inswinging delivery will not hit his pads. He can play straight with this stance. I think this is what Virat should do early on if he feels he is struggling against the left-armers.”
he told YouTube channel VUSport Streaming .
Dismissals to the balls coming in have been rare with Kohli but he had highlighted that as a relevant cause for his struggles during the 2014 tour of England. The batter had said he let the inswinging balls play into his head too much and started opening up to the off-side a lot more, which meant he played for balls that he could’ve easily left.
To counter this issue, Virat adopted a frontfoot dominated stance with the forward press, making bowlers bowl shorter to him and nullify the swing to some extent. He went on to have a great tour of Australia that followed in 2014-15 winters and enjoyed an unprecedentedly rich run of form with the bat for the best part of the next four years.
But as it happens in cricket, you cover up one issue, the other pops up. While Kohli’s frontfoot press allows him to cut down some swing, being too far outside the crease rushes him at times and makes him go at the ball while it is still on the move.
There have been suggestions for him to go back to the normal front-back stance and look to play more shots through the square on the off-side. But Kohli has stuck to his guns in this period despite a prolonged dip in his returns. The batter averages a measly 28.03 in Tests since the start of 2020.
