Virat Kohli uses 2018 England tour method to achieve success in Adelaide

Australia and England are two very different countries when it comes to the challenges they present to the batsmen. In the UK, the challenge comes from the generous swing bowlers get while Down Under, it's the bounce that tests out a batsman's technique. 

In 2014, Virat Kohli endured the most miserable time of his career when he went through five Test matches in England without getting even one half-century. But later that year, in Australia, he plundered over 500 runs in a four-match Test series with four centuries. 

However, Kohli's performances against Australia in the last two series have been well under-par by his own lofty standards. In the 2017 home series against the Aussies, the Indian captain didn't get even as far as 20 in the five innings he played. In the 2018/19 series in Australia, he scored arguably the best hundred of his career at Perth but otherwise, was overshadowed by Cheteshwar Pujara. 

It did seem that Australian bowlers had a better plan against Kohli than others. This plan got somewhat revealed in the first ODI of the series that preceded the Test contest on this tour. The plan was simple - bowl the fifth-stump line. This is the one area where Kohli's vulnerability was known years ago and was exploited by many. 

In fact, it was this line that caused his downfall in the 2014 England tour. However, this line proved innocuous when the English bowlers were denied help from swing-friendly conditions. Kohli's mountain of runs against the same team at home in the 2016 home series was a testament to that. So, why did Australia succeed with the same strategy?

This was because of a slight adjustment by the Australians to this strategy. In England, the ball swings, hence bowlers from that country naturally bowl a fuller length. This length proves disastrous in Indian conditions, as Jimmy Anderson and his colleagues found out in India. 

Australian bowlers, on the other hand, having been brought up on hard pitches, bowl shorter, what is called back-of-a-length. The Aussie bowlers realized that pitching the ball up, even on a fifth-stump line, would allow Kohli to use his driving prowess to great effect. So, they combined this line with a shorter length, to take away Kohli's drives and make him look for more ambitious shots. 

It worked in the first ODI of the three-match series last month. Kohli would have understood that this would be the mode of attack that Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins would employ in the only Test of the series he will play. 

To counter that, Kohli went back to the strategy that allowed him to conquer what many regarded as his final frontier - England. In 2018, before the 5-match Test series in England, all the hype was about the Anderson vs Kohli contest. The big question that everyone asked was: can Kohli overcome Anderson's skills? 

The Indian batting maestro did that with aplomb. He scored more than 500 runs and avoided, if narrowly, getting out to Anderson even once. When asked how he turned the tables on England after that ghastly tour of 2014, he said it needed getting over his ego. On-field, it meant being uncharacteristically patient and leaving deliveries on the dreaded fifth-stump line alone all day. 

This made him successful. Though, it also meant that he didn't dominate Anderson but showed him great respect. Now, this wouldn't have been easy for the fiery and often intemperate Indian captain. He must have needed to dig really deep to get over the urge of trying to go after Anderson and prove his superiority. But by ignoring the short-term but dangerous pleasure of hitting boundaries against his English adversary, he achieved the ultimate goal of scoring big runs in England. 

On day 1 of the first Test against Australia at Adelaide, Kohli used the same method to achieve success, though it was cut short by a run-out. For a batsman whose breathtaking strokeplay has earned millions of admirers around the world, Kohli showed incredible restraint and used the leave outside the off-stump to great effect. 

Kohli's 74 took an unusually long 180 balls. He played his shots with great discretion and made the bowlers work exceptionally hard. This was a great example of why Test cricket is the greatest sport in the world and way better than the ersatz spectacle of T20 cricket. It doesn't just depend on your skill but your personality as a whole. To succeed in Test cricket, for a decent period of time, one needs to use the strength of his character, not just skill and talent. 

The evolution of Kohli from an intemperate hothead to a victor over his ego is the best example of the greatness of this format and this sport. It's also a testament to the grit and determination that the 32-year old genius has shown in his cricketing journey. 

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