India and Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli credited his recent success in South Africa to AB de Villiers in a recent interaction with NDTV. Both de Villiers and Kohli are playing for the same team RCB now in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
During the interaction, Virat mentioned while batting, he had an idiosyncrasy of tapping the bat before facing the bowler.
Kohli suggested that the habit doesn’t affect much in limited overs cricket where the bowl doesn’t do much.
However, when it came to Test cricket, where the ball does all the talking, the habit tends to consume some extra time.
This leads to lesser reaction time which finally affects the balance and head position when the ball hits the bat.
AB de Villiers, on the other hand, has the tendency to not tap the bat onto the ground which helps him stay balanced while facing the ball.
Kohli ended up with the most number of runs on the South African tour:
“I actually learnt something from him in the recent Test series that we played. I made that adjustment to my game, which I haven’t told him about yet,” Virat Kohli claimed during a recent interaction.
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Virat ended up with the most number of runs on the South African tour after mirroring de Villiers’ technique before facing the ball.
It helped Virat Kohli nick the ball less often, much like it did for the South African batting Maestro himself.
In the Cape Town Test match, De Villiers scored a counter-attacking knock of sixty which set the tone for his team in the gruelling series.
Also, in the Centurion Test, the batting giant de Villiers scored a brilliant knock of 80 which took the game away from India.
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