On a hot Brisbane afternoon, after batting longer than any other Indian, Virat Kohli trudged off the nets with his two bats, and as he neared the shade of the tents he would bang a bat with the other. It was that kind of a rather interesting net session, two days before the third Test. It’s not as if he had a scrappy session, but for a batsman who has previously said “batting is 70% technical”, his approach was fascinating.
The nets at Gabba are on the outside, not far from the public road, not far from a statue of Allan Border, frozen into a fierce cover drive. Incidentally, a shot that wasn’t seen much in the nets from Kohli. For a while in the past when the runs weren’t coming, his back leg would be semi-frozen. Now in Australia, definitely at Brisbane nets, they were dancing away, moving frenetically, but it came with its own set of issues.
His first movement was back and a touch across, a furious blur as it were, but he would then try to get forward, dropping his front shoulder forward. The time available to him to complete that movement was obviously pretty short. Just before the release of a bowler or a throw-down specialist, as the case may be at the nets, he would push back and as the ball was in the air, he would try to push forward. The shortish balls weren’t a problem. Really full deliveries weren’t an issue. The in-between good-length did keep throwing up hard questions at him. Be it from Jasprit Bumrah or Mohammad Siraj or the nippy skiddy Akash Deep or the throw down specialists led by Raghu.
Often, the balls were at him even when he was on the move forward. It seemed to annoy him, and he would shake his head or mutter something when the ball caught the edge.
It was a pretty intense Kohli out there, utterly focussed on the job at hand, utterly purposeful to nail down his technique for the Test. He took repeated stints, jumping from one net to the other, even as the others would take a break or move away to the shade of the tents. In the end, only he would know whether he was happy with the way it all panned out.
It’s difficult to see Pat Cummins and co. waste too many balls bowling too short. Equally difficult to see them offer too full deliveries. If the balls are back of length, Kohli is bound to push, punch, tap them away – as he would do at the nets. What would he do to a classic Josh Hazlewood delivery that just about straightens from a length? That’s going to be his main test, and going by his reactions at the nets, he knows it.
Often, after pushing back, when trying to get forward, he would land on his heel – not an ideal position for him. He likes to be balanced on the toes, which gives him greater balance and gets his head over the ball. In the past he has spoken about how the ideal state for a batsman is to get forward, and be in a position from there to push back if needed. He seems to be trying something different for Brisbane now, at least on evidence of the nets.
The push back came first, then the forward press. But the time window is so short that when the ball landed on the in-between length and straightened, he was playing it on the move. There were couple of times when Bumrah nicked him off, but that was early in the stint. It was against the throwdown specialist Raghu, in his last stint nearly a couple of hours later, that the internal battle would pop out. He would punch and tap, but there would be occasions when he would be caught on the move, and edge. He would look at the thrower and suggest the ball skidded quicker or shaped away. Raghu would sagely nod, say something and get back for more of the same.
It did give raise to a thought: would a younger Kohli have been able to press forward that micro-second quicker? It’s difficult to say as he still seems to be as fit as any other Indian youngster out there. Perhaps, the younger Kohli wouldn’t attempt this approach in first place. He has stood well outside the crease, he has moved towards the off stump, he has pressed forward, he has opened up his stance, he has placed that front foot down the pitch towards the bowler – Kohli has dabbled successfully with all that in the past. His game has never been a static one, instead a dynamically evolving one that makes tweaks as per demands of the situation he has found himself in.
Now, he seems to have decided that this back-first-then-move-forward is the way to go for him. A drone’s view of it would be akin to watching him on a treadmill. All that furious energy that brings him back to the same place, but batsmen obsess about that initial movement and their place in the crease when the ball arrives the most.
Beside him, Shubman Gill would move back and then stay there. KL Rahul would perhaps try to lean forward a touch, if anything. Yashasvi Jaiswal was trying to be as balanced as he can be with a tiny stride. Nitish Reddy would be inside the crease, punching on the up. Rishabh Pant stood with his wide stance, trying not to move too much as he drove or punched. Rohit Sharma continued with his Adelaide method of standing on the crease, and trying to get forward. Sunil Gavaskar had commented that Rohit should perhaps do some exercise and even run in while getting to the crease – just to get that energy and momentum going. Unsure if he read that comment, but Rohit would every time run into bat when it was his turn.
No one can criticise this batting unit for not trying, for not sweating hard with their individual plans ahead of the third Test. They were all focussed, each in their own batting bubble, trying earnestly, intensely. Whether it works or not, remains to be seen.
Kohli’s efforts in particular were rather fascinating to watch. A Test great trying to nail down his game before a vital encounter, trying to iron out the flaws, try something new. He has one more day to get this technique smoothed out. It’s an optional day, and usually some batsmen go easy. Will he or will he sweat as hard as he did on Thursday? Potentially, one more net stint is available before the judgement day at the Gabbatoir.
