Virat Kohli, star India batter, received rich praise from bowling coach Morne Morkel ahead of the BGT 2024 Test series opener in Perth. The first of the five Tests begins in Perth on November 22, 2024.
Virat Kohli is on his fifth tour of Australia, and he has a very good record there. He has 1,352 runs in 13 matches, averaging 54.08, with six hundreds and four fifties in 25 innings.
In the last five years, Kohli has averaged 19.33 in 2020, 28.21 in 2021, 26.50 in 2022, 55.91 last year, and 22.72 this year.
He has only scored two centuries in the last five years, both of which occurred in 2023. He is coming off a dismal New Zealand Test series in which he scored only 93 runs in six innings, with a best of 70.
Despite this, India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel lauded Virat Kohli’s impact on the team.
“The intensity and professionalism he brings is top-notch, always putting himself under pressure in nets. For youngsters to witness that, it’ll take their game to a different level,” Morkel said praising Kohli’s work ethic, at the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
Morkel agreed that India is under pressure heading into this series, but also highlighted the chances that exist.
“A lot of people would see how we go about our business here. But our key message is that we need to put that aside. For any cricketer, when you come to Australia, you want to do well. This is where you make a name for yourself — on one of the biggest stages in the world to play cricket.
To come up here and play good, solid cricket, score 500-600 runs in a series (or) take wickets (and) that puts yourself on a stage. It’s a fantastic carrot to dangle in front of Indian players," he added.
Morkel stated that Indian batters will have to develop new ways to score runs, but in today's world, players face a plethora of information and data.
“Partnerships are going to be crucial, protecting the partnership, getting through the new ball. Once the ball is softer, not to give it away, soft wicket. When we talk about those sorts of blueprints, that is what we identify as areas that we can post a score on the board.
As a batting unit, there’s been a lot of conversation on how they’re going to go about finding a blueprint to put runs on the board,” he said.
Morkel said fighting it out during tough passages of play will also be crucial.
“When I was playing back in the day, I found that if you can fight through tough periods and not give it away softly, at the end of the day, that is sort of the way you want to play your brand of cricket," he said.
(ANI inputs)
