Virat Kohli explains how AB de Villiers helped him unknowingly during the Test series

Team India were involved in a high-voltage three-match Test series against South Africa in January which they lost closely by the margin of 2-1. Virat Kohli was the highest run-getter of the series as he was the only centurion in the series which was dominated by the bowlers from both the sides. He was dismissed early in the first Test match in both the innings but he came back well to score a ton the in the next game. However, he has now explained that he changed his technique in the middle of the tour and unknowingly AB de Villiers helped him for the same.

Both the champion cricketers are currently playing in the same team in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). They are representing Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for a long time and both are very good friends. Most importantly they admire each other and call each other as the best batsman of this generation. Even during the intense tour they were close to each other and played the series sportingly not sledging each other.

Kohli explains

Virat Kohli, in his interview to NDTV, has explained how AB de Villiers helped him in removing the chink in his batting armoury in the middle of the Test series. The skipper of the Indian team also went on to inform that the South African champion doesn’t even about it and even he hasn’t told him regarding the same. Kohli’s struggles against the moving ball is well known to the cricketing world as he tends to edge the ball to the keeper but after watch ABD play in the videos, he changed his approach and it certainly worked for him.

“I actually learnt something from him (De Villiers) in the recent Test series where I made an adjustment to my game and I haven’t told him about yet. I used to tap my bat right at the end before playing the ball so that works for me in the shorter formats when the ball isn’t doing much. But in Test cricket, I observed when they showed replays of Bumrah beating him (De Villiers) but the ball won’t hit the edge because he was so correct with what he was doing,” Kohli said.

“The ball would do move and not take the edge. I was wondering why am I edging it. So I went analysed how still his head was and I stopped the tap of the bat which helped me stay more still and then I scored runs. I actually immediately learnt from him during the Test series and I never told him that,” the master of the run-chases added.

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