Where will Kohli end up among Asian batsmen?

[Flem274*]

Kohli's main issue that I've seen is his hands are following the ball.

He probably needs a knock where he shelves the drives and forces bowlers to come to him, because right now they're hanging it out and waiting for him to come to them.

 

[vicleggie]

The best behind Ricky Pon Ting (Chinese Heritage)

 

[Kirkut]

What do you see as unorthodox about Kohli's technique? It seems pretty orthodox to me. Smith I can understand with the big walk across to off and those exaggerated movements which make him look weird, but I don't get that with Kohli tbh. I can see how he goes harder at the ball than an older school player and plays out in front a bit, but I don't think him unorthodox. Actually Smith, whose technique looks weird AF actually plays the ball much later than Kohli imo, as do Root and Williamson.

Yes and he tends to play the ball away from the body as well.

 

[Kirkut]

I think teams may have figured out how to keep Kohli quiet, and that is by keeping his ego happy. Kohli scores huge when his ego gets wounded.

Someone has to do silly antics like Kesrick Williams to bring back Kohli at his fiery best.

 

[Teja.]

I think Dravid is comfortably ahead but I also think people underrate several things about Dravid's career.

This could obviously change is he has a comeback but that is looking shaky now.

 

[honestbharani]

In mid 2001 when Brian Lara was 32 years old, his average was below 50, it was 47.68 after 80 Tests. He had only scored 15 hundreds at that point in his career.

Lara was accused by some of not always taking the game seriously, or having his head screwed on properly. You'd think his technique wouldn't of held up the older he got. You wouldn't of been re-missed to think that his best days were behind him at that point.

Lara then went onto a huge run, scored 19 hundreds in his final 50 Tests. Averaged over 60 in that period.

Kohli is 33 years old. It'd be naïve to think Kohli couldn't rise again in a similar vein.

This post works for me on so many levels.........

 

[Himannv]

He looks like a promising batsman. I think he will play many Tests and go on to have a great career.

 

[honestbharani]

What do you see as unorthodox about Kohli's technique? It seems pretty orthodox to me. Smith I can understand with the big walk across to off and those exaggerated movements which make him look weird, but I don't get that with Kohli tbh. I can see how he goes harder at the ball than an older school player and plays out in front a bit, but I don't think him unorthodox. Actually Smith, whose technique looks weird AF actually plays the ball much later than Kohli imo, as do Root and Williamson.

Kohli's lack of backfoot game is the reason, really. At his peak, he could off both feet but since 2018, he seems to have decided all "muh cover drives" and totally given up on playing back. If he can crack that side of his game again (and signs have been good under Dravid), I think he will back to his old self.

Almost all of the other best batsmen right now do play off the backfoot more than the front foot. At his best, that set Virat apart but still think he needs to have the option of playing off the backfoot at the very least, even if that is not his first instinct or trigger.

 

[honestbharani]

I don't know Kohli crazy fitness regime may have contributed in his decline maybe the best fitness regime for a batsman is still just old school running laps of the ground in high volumes.

I know someone who regularly has dinners with Misbah and he said Misbah eats like crazy never takes bread though but ensures a 10k run 5-6 days a week he was informed YK also followed a similar traing regime and they were able to maintain their peaks past their 40 even with dodgy Pakistani birth certificates

Yeah, that basically implies they were that fit in their 50s, right?

But now, Rameez has just decided that replacing them with people who look like they are 50 would do the trick. /uncles.

 

[cnerd123]

Kohli's main issue that I've seen is his hands are following the ball.

He's always batted this way. As alluded to above, his decline has to do with him not being in the right headspace more than anything.

It's why I've never rated him too highly tho. His technique never looked tight enough to be a Test ATG. Superb in white ball stuff where you don't have to worry too much about swing/spin or catching fielders, but overly reliant on having the mental side of his game being very tight in order to consistently score Test runs. And lately that's just faded.

 

[Kirkut]

Kohli's lack of backfoot game is the reason, really. At his peak, he could off both feet but since 2018, he seems to have decided all "muh cover drives" and totally given up on playing back. If he can crack that side of his game again (and signs have been good under Dravid), I think he will back to his old self.

Almost all of the other best batsmen right now do play off the backfoot more than the front foot. At his best, that set Virat apart but still think he needs to have the option of playing off the backfoot at the very least, even if that is not his first instinct or trigger.

Virat never had a backfoot game if you leave aside his pull/hooks. I have never seen him playing backfoot drives.

Besides, developing a backfoot game won't be easy at this stage of his career.

 

[Kirkut]

In mid 2001 when Brian Lara was 32 years old, his average was below 50, it was 47.68 after 80 Tests. He had only scored 15 hundreds at that point in his career.

Lara was accused by some of not always taking the game seriously, or having his head screwed on properly. You'd think his technique wouldn't of held up the older he got. You wouldn't of been re-missed to think that his best days were behind him at that point.

Lara then went onto a huge run, scored 19 hundreds in his final 50 Tests. Averaged over 60 in that period.

Kohli is 33 years old. It'd be naïve to think Kohli couldn't rise again in a similar vein.

The difference being that the game has changed a lot, it's become far more performance oriented and competitive.

Lara had an innate artistic drive which stats can never show, on song there was no one like him, not even Viv. Kohli is a thorough professional on the other hand with a strong desire to win, so if he loses interest in cricket his batting also goes down with it. While Lara oscillates between a lull period and a raging storm.

 

[Migara]

Kohli can go to a examplr from his neighbours. Angelo Mathews, a mercurial stroke player, lost his reflexes and went in to a terminal dip. However, Mathews let his ego, and modified his game to be a grafter. He is hugely un-attractive, dour and put people to sleep with his batting. But in last two years he average 49.7 with the bat. Some how, Mathews is keeping the runs accumulating. If Kohli has gone through the same issue, he can retire from limited overs stuff and adapt his game in the test format.

 

[subshakerz]

I think the upcoming home series against Australia will be critical for Kohli. A poor series there and suddenly there will be pressure for him to leave.

Frankly, it will be a mini-tragedy for cricket if someone as good as Kohli ends his career with a sub-50 average.

 

[bagapath]

In Tests

1. Gavaskar
2. Tendulkar
3. Sangakara
4. Dravid
5. Miandad
6. Younis Khan
7. Sehwag
8. Inzamam
9. Kohli
10. Hanif
11. Aravinda
12. Hazare
13. Anwar
14. MoYo
15. VVS
16. Mahela
17. Viswanath
18. Zaheer
19. Umrigar
20. Jayasurya

 

[bagapath]

In ODIs

1. Tendulkar
2. Kohli
3. Dhoni
4. Babar Azam
5. Zaheer
6. Jayasurya
7. Rohit
8. Ganguly
9. Aravinda
10. Anwar
11. Miandad
12. Sehwag
13. Yuvraj
14. Inzamam
15. Sangakara
16. MoYo
17. Dravid
18. Mahela
19. Gavaskar
20. Younis Khan

 

[subshakerz]

In Tests

1. Gavaskar
2. Tendulkar
3. Sangakara
4. Dravid
5. Miandad
6. Younis Khan
7. Sehwag
8. Inzamam
9. Kohli
10. Hanif
11. Aravinda
12. Hazare
13. Anwar
14. MoYo
15. VVS
16. Mahela
17. Viswanath
18. Zaheer
19. Umrigar
20. Jayasurya

Tendulkar tops all. Whatever happens, Kohli will end up rated higher than Sehwag and Inzi. VVS better than MoYo for me. Misbah should be there perhaps.

 

[Xuhaib]

In Tests

1. Gavaskar
2. Tendulkar
3. Sangakara
4. Dravid
5. Miandad
6. Younis Khan
7. Sehwag
8. Inzamam
9. Kohli
10. Hanif
11. Aravinda
12. Hazare
13. Anwar
14. MoYo
15. VVS
16. Mahela
17. Viswanath
18. Zaheer
19. Umrigar
20. Jayasurya

Pretty good list though Sachin is tops for me I find it difficult to separate Dravid , Sanga also Miandad and YK are dead even for me .Nice to see Hanif and Arvinda this high both get to fly under the radar a bit .Salim malik & Azharuddin were also couple of blokes who I thought were terrific but not sure who they can replace here probably I will take them over Umrigar and Jayasuriya at the last 2 spots

 

[honestbharani]

Salim malik & Azharuddin were also couple of blokes who I thought were terrific but not sure who they can replace here probably I will take them over Umrigar and Jayasuriya at the last 2 spots

If the price is right

 

[Xuhaib]

Pretty good list though Sachin is tops for me I find it difficult to separate Dravid , Sanga also Miandad and YK are dead even for me .Nice to see Hanif and Arvinda this high both get to fly under the radar a bit .Salim malik & Azharuddin were also couple of blokes who I thought were terrific but not sure who they can reach here

If the price is right

Haha yeah that a big black mark on both but on pure batsmanship both were pure artists.