Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli is currently leading the side in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand.
As India gears up for the coveted world title, the parallel discussion in the media has begun on the ploys and strategies needed to see the back of the most feared Indian batsman in the modern era - Virat Kohli.
In addition to that, a lot of experts time and again have opined on different methods to get the star India batsman out. It has been 575 days since the India captain last scored a century in any form of the game. A certain section of media has also suggested his form to be worrisome.
Dale Steyn is the latest to add his two cents to this ongoing discussion. "You've got to play the mind games with Virat. I would look at putting somebody in at short leg. I would let him know that I'm going to come at him, come at his body, want to come quickly at him. And I'd want him to try and pull, because I feel like that's his B game," Steyn told Sanjay Manjrekar on ESPNCricinfo.
"Even though he does it really well, I'd want him to think that's where I'm going to bowl, and then get it up there because I like to swing the ball, I like to move the ball. Look for those three modes of dismissals, LBW, bowled and the caught behind."
In the past also, a few experts have weighed in their opinion on how to get the modern-day legend out including Shane Warne in 2019 when he ruled out going into attacking mode against Kohli.
“I think the one thing you need to do with Virat, which is one thing teams don’t do enough of, is take away both sides of the wicket,” Warne had told ESPNcricinfo.
“If you’re going to bowl to Virat Kohli, you either bowl at leg stump and protect the on side, or you bowl wide of off stump and you protect the off side. You cannot bowl at the stumps, because he can hit you both ways. So, I think you’ve to take out one side of the field. Protect just one side of the field, that’s how you bowl to very good players,” Warne added.
Having earned the reputation of one of the most threatening bowlers in modern times, Shoaib Akhtar in an Instagram live video last year said, “If I was bowling, I would go wider of the crease and pitch the ball up and shape it away from him in order to make him drive. If that does not work, I will bowl him at 150 kmph and he will get out.”
Featured photo : Indranil Mukherjee / AFP
