Crackkk – The sound of Kohli’s determination

CRACKKK…

You could have heard it around the Gabba and the area around it in the larger suburb of Woolloongabba. Straight from Vulture Street to Stanley Street at the other end. However, the crack was not a result of Virat Kohli making contact with the ball while executing a fierce cover drive. It was instead a result of him smashing one of his bats against the other bat he had carried to the nets in Brisbane.

It was at the end of one of Kohli’s longest batting sessions in the nets in recent times. After all, he is not in the same league as Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne or Kane Williamson in terms of batsmen who occupy the nets incessantly. Or who feel the need to ensure that every intricate aspect of their batting has been worked on incessantly before they are finished.

Kohli’s nets are generally all about feel where he is in and out most of the times when he is happy with what he is looking to achieve from the session. Or so it has historically been. As it largely was in Perth and in Adelaide before the first and second Tests respectively.

But there was an added desire to delve into the nets as India had a full practice session in the Adelaide Oval nets on Tuesday (December 10) on what should have been Day 5 of the second Test.

There, Kohli first started against the fast bowlers before moving around to face the spinners and throwdown specialists. He wasn’t done yet, though, even though the first set of batters were moved on. He stayed back and first had a lengthy chat with head coach Gautam Gambhir. Kohli then pulled aside Raghu and Nuwan, the two main throwdown specialists, with clear instructions. “Bowl fast.”

He then proceeded to face the two for nearly half an hour, batting slightly outside his crease and doing his best to ensure his body weight pushed as far forward as he wanted while stretching his front foot out and tried to turn on deliveries. up. He ended that particular session with a lovely drive down the ground, similar to those he played against Pat Cummins during his century in Perth. Kohli looked happy and he left smiling and joking with a few of his teammates.

It’s not like he wasn’t joking shortly after smashing his two bats together with a bit of irritation at the end of his net in Brisbane two days ago. He would even hold court for the likes of Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill in the small makeshift dugout.

But there was a very obvious determination, even desperation, for the leading Indian batter to correct his movements and alignment to be able to combat his arch nemesis of late, the length delivery of around fourth stump, which either straightens from an angle or even moving slightly away. It has been his bane on three occasions already in this series, with three separate bowlers dismissing him like that.

Josh Hazlewood in Perth, Mitchell Starc in the first innings in Adelaide and Scott Boland in the second innings of the pink-ball Test. The Boland one in particular was probably the most worrying, given how telegraphed a strategy it appeared to be from the Victorian fast bowler. Lands the ball on a proverbial hanky, same spot over and over again, making Kohli commit to playing them all before catching him on the move and cutting him off.

And through several attempts, which included several hits against the many fast bowlers, from Jasprit Bumrah to the reserves, Kohli tried every tactic he could think of to get his body moving the way he wanted it to before the point of contact with the ball. .

This was Virat Kohli on the move. And every time you thought he was done, he wasn’t. He put his helmet back on and re-entered one of the nets for another ride. The former captain must have been at it for nearly two hours on Thursday afternoon, even as the rest of the batsmen came and went. Some of them also had long shifts in the nets, from Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul to Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant, but Kohli was perennial.

You could see what he was basically trying to work on and how he was feeling. Back and across and then the instantaneous transfer of body weight forward, in an attempt to meet the ball and connect with it as it comes up.

Four years ago he had pulled this writer aside and explained his philosophy on batting in Australia. It always involved pushing forward and going to the ball to be successful on Australian pitches compared to waiting it out in England. It was at the SCG a few days after the opening Test of the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy. In contrast, Kohli had spent more time working on Mayank Agarwal’s trigger movements and approach to the crease rather than his own.

It is a trademark of Kohli’s batting, which in many ways has helped him create the enviable record he has as a Test batsman in this country. The way he has been able to dictate the bowlers’ terms by imposing himself, not by taking risks, but by being on the move and being proactive with his feet. It is this ability of his that has helped him produce so many iconic innings in Australia, which have generally been a highlight filled with many of his lavish drives.

It’s the same kinds of deliveries he managed in the past, though it’s his biggest gripe these days. He has always had that quick back and cross trigger movement while batting in Australia, but then he has also had that immediate lean forward which gives him the necessary balance to always be on top of the ball. Which has allowed him to make very good decisions while also leaving deliveries, which was a big part of his centuries in Perth six years ago.

Whether it’s just a case of form or the unmistakable force of age catching up, it’s this second part of his two-pronged strategy that has failed him, unable to push forward with the same gusto as before. This has led to him being on the move, but not as he wants or when he wants to do it, and not having full balance when he has tried to either play at deliveries outside his off-stump, or even in relation to his assessment of which deliveries to play on.

Just look at those dismissals in this series and how he hasn’t had a steady base while connecting with every delivery that has gotten him out. He has, of course, tried different ways of getting over it, whether it was standing well outside his crease for Hazlewood in Perth, or trying to cut down on that movement against Starc on the first afternoon in Adelaide, or being a stationary goal for Boland to refine. further in his second dig against the pink ball.

And when he approached a full two hours in the nets on Thursday, it was clear how hard he tried to get a handle on the small technical cues. Through several plays and misses and a series of edges, especially when he faced the more strident bowlers, like Mukesh Kumar, or the genuine pace of Raghu with a side arm.

It was quite something to see a master batter try to break down what has worked so well for him for so long and reconnect with his glory days when he was at his peak. The final few minutes of Kohli’s net, the last before he faces the Aussies at the Gabba, were intense, balls hitting bat resulting in his head dropping or head shaking, interspersed with powerful drives and head nods. .

In the end, when he packed up his kit and left the Gabba net area, you couldn’t be sure if he was ready to overcome his challenge. But you had to acknowledge the effort he had put into giving himself the best opportunity to do so. And all of India will be hoping that the only Crackkkkk they hear from Kohli’s bat is of him dominating the Aussie attack before a different kind of sound echoes around this iconic venue over the next five days.