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When Virat Kohli Dialled Tendulkar's Number After Horrendous Tour Of England

Anurag Dasgupta

When Kohli called Tendullkar [Source: @LokeshVirat18K/x.com] When Kohli called Tendullkar [Source: @LokeshVirat18K/x.com]

When India toured England in 2014, Virat Kohli, the star batter, was coming off a stellar tour of New Zealand and was riding high on confidence after scoring a truckload of runs in Tests and ODI cricket. He was expected to perform at his best on his first full-fledged red-ball tour of England but little did the Indian fans knew that this would turn out to be a nightmare for the India star.

The England tour which gave Kohli nightmares

The England tour was supposed to be the last hurdle for Kohli, as before the series, he had recorded centuries in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and he was all set to conquer the final frontier. However, English pacer, James Anderson had some other plans as the swing bowler made Kohli his bunny throughout the series.

Anderson, who was a master of exploiting his opponent's weakness, understood that Kohli struggled on outside the off stump deliveries and the Indian batters constantly nicked deliveries on the off-stump line as he could only manage to score 134 runs in 10 innings, and had a disastrous England Test tour.

He became a laughing stock amongst the English supporters as his weakness was perfectly exposed by the English seamers. But instead of giving up, Kohli had some other plans.

How Kohli's idol, Tendulkar helped him to revive Test career

In the same year, India was set to tour Australia and the Aussie bowlers were also licking their lips at the prospect of troubling Kohli with similar deliveries. Hence, to correct his technique against moving the ball, the India batter dialed Sachin Tendulkar's number in the hope that he could work on his weakness.

"I came back from England and spoke to Sachin paaji and had a few sessions with him in Mumbai. I told him that I am working on my hip position. He made me realise the importance of a big stride, a forward press against fast bowlers. The moment I started doing that with my hip alignment, things started falling in place nicely and then the Australia tour happened," as quoted by Indian Express.

This chat helped the former India skipper revive his Test career as on the tour of Australia, his weakness was almost eliminated as he scored truckloads of runs and amassed 692 in 4 Tests, including four centuries as well. 

Nobody can forget his twin centuries at Adelaide as it almost steered India to a famous win in Australia but the team faltered at the last moment. Kohli ended the tour as the second-highest run-getter behind Steve Smith.