In the past, practice games were common when teams travelled abroad and tried to become acclimated to the new environment. Virat Kohli, who recently retired, disagreed with the many past cricket players who have highlighted the importance of practising.
It was disclosed by former India bowling coach Bharat Arun that Kohli ‘never liked practice matches’ since they were not very intense. Rather, he liked to push himself in the nets by asking bowlers to bowl on difficult surfaces from 16 yards. “Indian and world Test cricket will miss him and his persona. I have spent some of my best moments as India’s bowling coach with Virat Kohli as captain,” Arun told PTI in an interaction. “He never liked practice matches. He always felt the intensity was somehow missing and never really enjoyed practice games. Instead, he would want to spend more time at the nets and would always choose the spiciest wicket and get bowlers to bowl at him from 16 yards – or take throw downs from 16 yards. The fact is – he always needed a challenge. That’s what got him going,” he added. The ‘pivotal moment’ that occurred during the historic Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2018-19 was also recounted by Arun. The series was 1-1 after Kohlis hit a pointless century in the Perth Test, but his leadership transformed the attitude of the team.”Virat had just scored a fantastic hundred at Perth but we did not win that match,” he said. “Going into Melbourne, it was Virat who literally changed the dressing room mindset. He made everyone believe that we could do it and went about his business as leader in a manner unrivalled.” Arun praised India’s fourth-highest run scorer in Test cricket, with 30 hundreds and an average of over 47. He is also the most successful Indian Test captain with 40 wins from 68 Tests.”He respected the format more than anything else and will be missed,” the 62-year-old concluded.