Sanjay Bangar was a ringside witness to Virat Kohli’s peak as an international cricketer between 2014 to 2019 and it was hardly surprising to find the former India batting coach being summoned by the star for a special net session ahead of his Ranji Trophy comeback after more than 12 years. Following the BCCI’s diktat to all centrally contracted cricketers to be available for domestic cricket, Kohli, who has been struggling for form, will be playing in Delhi’s last league game against Railways at the Kotla from January 30.
Kohli’s national team colleagues like skipper Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja all fulfilled their ‘SOP duty’ by playing the just- concluded round of Ranji Trophy.
Among the stars, only Jadeja (12 wickets, 38 runs) and Gill (second innings 102) enjoyed fruitful outings.
For Kohli, 190 runs in 9 complete knocks in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy raised serious question marks about his future in international cricket. The 36-year-old has been dealing with technical issues against deliveries on and outside the off-stump channel with a similar pattern of dismissals.
If one speaks to knowledgeable people in the Indian cricket circuit, they would tell you about the comfort level that Kohli used to share with batting coach Bangar during their five years in the national team.
Between 2014 to 2019, Kohli has scored the bulk of his 80 international hundreds and since the end of Bangar’s tenure, he has made only two Test centurion in the last five years.
Bangar had to move on from the national team after the 2019 ODI World Cup as Vikram Rathour was roped in as the batting coach.
“When Kohli’s feedback was sought post 2019 World Cup, he had given a glowing certificate to Bangar, stating that as a batter, he had benefitted a lot from his technical inputs during all those years,” a senior BCCI official, who was then associated with the appointment of support staff, told PTI.
That Kohli always trusted Bangar’s inputs was evident when post his stint with Indian team, he got associated with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, a franchise where the former Indian captain’s view points carry a lot of weight.
Focus on backfoot play
Kohli missed the last round of Ranji Trophy due to a “neck sprain” and in his bid to get his rhythm back, he called Bangar, who arranged for a training session, which is believed to be off proper Mumbai city limits. It is a facility which has been personally developed by the former India all-rounder and Railways skipper.
Bangar was seen feeding Kohli with throwdown from 16 yards with focus on playing the rising deliveries on the backfoot. A portable cement slab (with attached wheels) was placed at the back of length (mid-pitch between 8-10m length) to feed the batter with back of length deliveries that rise steeply.
The idea for such a training session is to develop the backfoot play and also create more range square of the wicket.
Kohli is a compulsive front-foot player with a propensity to play the cover-drive and over the years, the backfoot play took a backseat.
Ahead of the Ranji Trophy match, the idea was to ensure that even if he doesn’t get too many pitched-up drivable length deliveries, he can still rock back and hit shots square of the wicket.
Over the years, if one revisits Kohli’s wagon wheel, one wouldn’t find too many square cuts or square drives — two staple shots for batter when they rock back to deliveries bowled at back of length and on the channel outside the off-stump.
For someone with a tough mental make-up, it won’t be very difficult to create a new range of strokes for himself.
DDCA expecting around 10,000 spectators
The Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) officials have made arrangements where at least 10,000 fans can watch the match with two stands being opened for the general public.
As usual, the entry would be free as it has been for all of Delhi’s home matches at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground for all these years.
“There has never been any entry fee charged for watching Ranji matches and the same custom would follow. The only thing is that two stands will be opened for the fans as we understand the level of excitement associated with Virat’s participation,” a senior official said.
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