The genius of Virat Kohli lies in the constant evolution and improvement of his game. He recently gave an interview to Nasser Hussain where he talked about how after a lean patch on the England tour, he spent hours in the nets practising the forward push and making adjustments to his stance and his pivot movement to counter top quality international bowlers. He knows nothing comes easy at this level.

A high percentage stroke maker

Already considered a modern master of the game, Kohli is cut out in the classical mould. He works as hard as anyone else on his game, but he stays away from anything that seems like a high-risk option. Those cute laps and reverse ramp shots that modern batsmen pride themselves upon are not his preferred allies.

Hitting big sixes is never a high percentage option in cricket and Kohli in his early years preferred hitting the ball along the ground as far as he could. In 2013, when India was chasing a mammoth 360 against Australia, Kohli gave himself the license to go for big sixes right from the word go. He hit seven of them while scoring the fastest ton ever for India in 52 balls.

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In 2016, Kohli became adept at clearing the boundary during the Indian Premier League where he scored an incredible four centuries. The short boundaries at his home ground at Chinnaswamy Stadium helped gain that confidence to go aerial, but he now backs himself to clear the fence on most grounds.

Anatomy of a stroke

Kohli has admitted in more than one interview that he does not have the raw power of a Kieron Pollard or a Chris Gayle to clear the fence even with a mishit. Kohli relies on his bat speed and that old ally of great Indian batsmen through the ages, supple wrists. Other than Mahendra Singh Dhoni, most Indian batsmen have relied on their wrists to provide them with that extra power to clear the fence. Remember Ajay Jadeja hitting Waqar Younis for that six over mid-wicket in 1996 World Cup quarterfinal? That was all bat speed and wrist too. Just that Kohli does it on a more regular basis and with unbelievable consistency.

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There is a feeling of efficiency about the Kohli six. He generally clears the boundary comfortably when he goes for the big hits, yet he never seems to hit those rainmakers that go sailing into the second tier of the stands and have commentators gushing over the distance and airtime on the ball. If the boundary is 75 metres away, you do not get extra runs for hitting it 105 metres. At the same time, you rarely see him getting caught at the boundary. He seems to have calibrated his technique to just put enough behind the ball to get him the desired result.

That miracle shot

Kohli admitted in the press conference that he surprised himself with that short arm jab he played during India’s successful chase of 351 in the first One-Day International against Pune that sailed over cow corner. Well, if he keeps unleashing those unbelievable strokes with such consistency, then he will stop surprising himself soon.

The ball was not that short and it seemed to cramp the batsman for room. But Kohli had already scored a hundred now. Not even a Hubble telescope can spot a moving object as well as Kohli spots a cricket ball when his eyes are set. He is already in his strike position, with feet well apart in his remodeled, slightly open stance. His strong core muscles from spending hours at the gym giving him a solid base to launch into the ball. Perhaps most importantly his head is rock steady at all times which allows him to keep his shape at all times. From here all his systems are a go, He just needs to get a clean swing to meet the ball and hopefully find the sweet spot on the bat, easier said than done of course! What seems physics defying is actually extremely precise mechanics in action.

While the shot had audacity, you cannot ignore Kohli’s game sense either. He could have gone for a more conventional pull shot if he had set himself up for that. But that computer in his head that always keeps him on the dot during a chase also has a clear map of the field placement at all times. He knew mid wicket was back and mid on was up and despite being one of the cleanest hitters of the cricket ball, he still wanted to go for the high percentage option. If it did not come out of the middle of the bat, he would still get one bounce four and not get caught in the deep.

It was a single moment in the game but it came from hours of high precision practice of body and mind. Kohli exhibiting the bravado of a cavalier and the canniness of a chess Grandmaster, all in one shot. The look of despair from the bowler Chris Woakes said it all. Team England was demoralised, their spirits sank. Even though they managed to get Kohli soon after, England seemed resigned to a loss. Keeping as many fielders as possible on the boundary even against the new batsmen showed they were not backing themselves with the ball anymore. The impact of a single blow can be incredible in sport and I suspect this one is going to take England a while to recover from.

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