Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa has achieved some success against the Indian captain Virat Kohli. Ahead of the Rajkot ODI, Zampa has revealed how he achieves these successes.
There is no doubt that most of the world-class bowlers scare to bowl the no.1-ranked ODI batsman Virat Kohli. But the Indian right-handed batsman is struggling to win the recent battles against the Aussie leggie Adam Zampa.
Brief stats between Virat Kohli (batsman) and Adam Zampa (bowler)
| Format | Runs | Balls | Outs | Dots | 4s/6s | Strike-rate |
| ODI | 126 | 97 | 4 | 30 | 12/2 | 129.90 |
| T20I | 40 | 39 | 2 | 14 | 3/0 | 102.56 |
| Other T20s | 30 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 3/2 | 230.77 |
Though Virat Kohli has dominated over Zampa most times, the leg-spinner sometimes won the ultimate crucial battles. While Kohli overshadowed Zampa in the IPL 2016 (entirely showed in other T20s), he has also managed the 100+ strike-rates against the leggie in limited-overs international cricket, but the Aussie dismissed him regularly in recent times. Zampa has taken Kohli’s wicket for four times in ODIs and twice in T20Is.
Adam Zampa has understood that Virat Kohli feels difficulties to face the leg-spinner at the start of his innings. The Aussie leg-spinner tries to take this advantage in the present days, and he achieved success in the same way during the last ODI at Mumbai. While the Indian captain Kohli came to bat at no.4 during the Mumbai ODI on last Tuesday (14th January), Zampa caught and bowled him on 16 off 14 balls.
Zampa claimed, “Virat finds leg-spinners difficult to line-up during the start of his innings. He is a great starter, he was 16 of 18 in the first match, I think it is important to have a game plan against him. I have got him out four times in the last year or so, it is great having confidence against him,”
Adam Zampa believes that the bowler needs to have a strong character with an attacking approach to win the battle against Virat Kohli.
The leggie added, “With Virat Kohli, you need to have an attacking approach. If you are on back foot and have a defensive mindset, then he can get on top of you. The most important thing is to have character when you play against India.”
Virat Kohli is a hard player to bowl: Adam Zampa
However, Adam Zampa has admitted that Virat Kohli is one of the toughest guys he has ever bowled, and as the proof, Zampa showed the strike-rate against him. While India and Australia are getting ready for the second ODI of this series that will be played on Friday (17th January) at Rajkot, Zampa feels to get the tougher challenge from Kohli.
Zampa said, “I have dismissed Virat quite a few times now, but still he scores over 100 strike rate against me. He is a hard player to bowl to. He is one of the toughest guys I have ever bowled to. He will be more switched on in the next game.”
While it is the three-match ODI series between the hosts India and the visitors Australia, they will play the last ODI of this series at Bengaluru on this Sunday (19th January). As the hosts are already trailing this series by the 0-1 margin after suffering the thrashing 10-wicket defeat in the Mumbai ODI, they can’t afford another loss in this series.