Former captain Virat Kohli made a clever plan with Shreyas Iyer to predict the swing movement of the South African bowlers on Day 1 in Centurion. This plan reminded fans of a similar strategy adopted by former batting greats Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, the current head coach.
Virat Kohli was India’s second-highest scorer on Day 1 of the first Test in Centurion against South Africa. Kohli scored 38 runs, and Shreyas Iyer scored 31 runs before KL Rahul took the honors and saved India from an under-150 total with his unbeaten knock of 70 runs. He got some support from Shardul Thakur, who scored 24 runs as India ended the rain-marred Day 1 in Centurion at the score of 208/8.
It was very tough in the middle at the SuperSport Park for the Indian batters after Temba Bavuma had won the toss and elected to bat first. India lost their top three of Rohit Sharma, Jaiswal, and Shubman Gill for only 24 runs.
Watch: Virat Kohli makes a plan with Shreyas Iyer, similar to what Tendulkar made with Dravid
After that, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer rebuilt the innings through their partnership of 68 (95). At the start of their partnership, the camera picked up an interesting instruction that Kohli was giving to Iyer.
Kohli was telling Iyer to observe closely the shiny side of the ball when the bowler is running in to bowl. And that would allow the striker to anticipate the swing movement direction in a better way.
This was a plan that Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid once used when they were playing New Zealand in swinging conditions. The non-striker would hold the bat in either his right hand or left hand after observing the shiny side of the ball to indicate the direction of the swing. Now that Dravid is India’s coach, it is possible that he would have told his batters about this plan.
Check out the video here:
Virat Kohli to Shreyas Iyer – “Ball dekhte rehna hath mein uske, Kidhar pakda rahega (Keep looking at the ball in his hand, where will it be held)
My Idolo Dedication For Team India 🥹❤️🇮🇳#INDvsSA #Selfless #Tests #Steph #WTC25 #Gill #NewYear #Luka pic.twitter.com/8fwWZovdfZ
— Shivendra Yadav (@Shivvvydv08) December 26, 2023
