KARACHI: Current Pakistan and former England spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed claimed that he advised the Indian top batter Virat Kohli to work on his footwork amid India’s tour to England.
Mushtaq, while speaking on ARY News’ show Bouncer (Eid Special) claimed that the former England spin bowling coach interacted with India’s top batter Kohli amid the ongoing tour of the subcontinent nation and advised the latter to work on his front foot movement.
“Once Virat was training in the gym and he himself came to me and asked how’s everything is going and after a brief conversation I told him a couple of things and he’s a very smart and a good listener,” Mushtaq revealed.
“So, I told Virat that the initial 10-15 runs you score, your front foot lands straight on the pitch and when you try to drive the ball and as your foot is not in the direction of the ball, it takes the outside nick even on a flat surface,” he added.
The legendary spinner then claimed that Virat acknowledged his point and started to shuffle across the pitch in the next games.
“After that, I noted that he began to shuffle across the pitch to get the ball in the middle but as you know when a batter shuffles especially when it is swinging, he lost track of where his off-stump was,” Mushtaq shared.
“He was carefully listening to all my points and acknowledged me, ‘That’s a very good point Mushi bhai and I would work on it’,” he maintained.
The former England coach then went on to reveal that he held a meeting with English cricket team management and made a policy to prevent Virat from scoring big and they agreed on the same.
“We made a policy for him [Kohli] during India’s white-ball tour and I told the English management that being an Asian coach, I think we should set a tight field for him for his first 15 runs. Let him hit the ball over mid-off, mid-on, or cover but he won’t be able to do so since he is afraid,” Mushtaq claimed.
“His confidence level gets boosted by getting a couple of quick singles, which he achieves by tapping the ball towards mid-off and mid-on in the early phase of his inning. So, I told them that we should take chances on him during his first 15 runs since there is a high chance that he would get out after playing a poor shot,” he concluded.
READ: Chandimal stars with century as Sri Lanka take lead on the third day
