Nasser Hussain's three-point plan to dismiss Virat Kohli

The Indian captain Virat Kohli has proved to be a thorn in the flesh for the visiting England team so far in the tour. In the Test matches, he ended up being the leading run-getter by far and in the ODIs as well, he started with a magnificent match-winning century in the first game in Pune.

It’s quite incredible how the fortunes have turned upside down for the 28-year-old from the last time these two teams met in England. He was just unable to stay at the crease in England and this time he is simply refusing to leave. The visitors have tried all sorts of tricks to get him out cheaply but he has scored big runs more often than not.

However, the former England captain Nasser Hussain has called for out of the box thinking and came up with a three-point strategy to get Kohli out. In his column for the Daily Mail, he has suggested the three ways that might work against the modern master.

His first idea states, “Perhaps Eoin Morgan has to take one side of the field out of the equation, go around the wicket and hide the ball outside off stump while telling his bowlers that he does not mind if they go for the odd wide or two.”

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“Then they could try to keep him off strike a bit more than they did in Pune on Sunday by allowing the lad at the other end a single off the fifth or sixth ball, or bring the field up to Kohli towards the end of the over to try to make him play a big shot that could lead to his downfall”, the second point suggested by Hussain.

And the third one says, “An option England may well employ if conditions dictate, is to bring Liam Plunkett into the side, put three men out and go for the short stuff.”

The 48-year-old Englishmen is right about his theory of trying out something different as the conventional methods have all failed against the Indian captain. He also suggested his side to be verbally aggressive against him and play with his ego which might result in him throwing his wicket away. “I would also like them to try to get stuck into him a bit verbally because he can have a short fuse. Try to work on his ego, like teams would attempt to do with Kevin Pietersen”, he added.

Nasser Hussain who is commentating in the games recently had an intriguing interview with Kohli and poured heaps of praises for the man from Delhi after his tremendous innings in Pune.

He said, “Kohli wants to overcome any challenge and he will never say ‘I can’t do it’, as was seen when he won the first ODI for India after they were 63 for four chasing 351 to win. The India captain is brilliant at reading a match situation, at least when he is batting, and I believe he is the best chaser of a total in one-day history.”

It is not surprising to see him speaking highly of Kohli as he has impressed one and all with his consistent batting in all forms of the game. He is the only player to have batting average of above 50 across all formats. He is surely on the path to becoming one of the greatest players to have ever played the game.