India batting coach Vikram Rathour said that Virat Kohli always bats well, but what impressed him the most during his 79-run knock in Cape Town is that he was more disciplined on the opening day of the ongoing third and final Test against South Africa at Newlands.
Kohli showed a lot of patience and perseverance during his well-crafted knock of 79 off 201 balls, but Rathour was really happy with the Indian captain’s innings against South Africa.
However, the right-hander has yet to post a big score and was looking to do so when he was caught behind off Kagiso Rabada as the tourists were bowled out for 223 in the first innings in Cape Town.
Rathour said at the post day media interaction: “There was never concern with the way he (Kohli) was batting, I mean he was always batting well, I thought as a batting coach, I was never concerned that he is not batting well, he was looking very good in the nets, he was looking very good in the game also, he was getting starts.”
He continued, “One good change today, he was more disciplined, I agree with that, so he really looked good, really good solid and with a bit of (more) luck, he could have converted into a big one, but I am happy (with) the way he played.”
However, the batting coach was not much pleased with Team India’s overall batting performance against South Africa on Tuesday (January 11) in Cape Town.
He added, “These are challenging conditions, not easy conditions to score runs in, but you are right, we are below par. We could have scored 50/60 more runs, that's what we were at least expecting.”
The 52-year-old also said that there were soft dismissals in the later part of the innings and felt the batters could have done a better job, though, he hopes South Africa couldn’t get a big lead in the game.
Rathour signed off by saying, “Virat played a phenomenal inning...Pujara was looking really good, but then they bowled a good spell in the morning, the conditions were overcast and they were challenging (for batting), but again I thought there were some soft dismissals in the later part of the innings, we could have done better definitely. The lesser the runs, I hope it will be an equal innings and they won't get a big lead.”
(With PTI Inputs)
