‘Repetition is the key to Kohli’s success’

India

Cricket365
June 8, 2016

Royal Challengers Bangalore batting coach Trent Woodhill has attempted to explain batsman Virat Kohli's incredible statistics at this year's IPL, saying that the key to Kohli's success is consistency on and off the field.

Woodhill explained that for Kohli to get nearly 1000 runs in those six weeks, and to average over 80, he made the effort to prepare, train, and play his shots in the same way every time.

Kohli is a fairly classical batsman for all his big hitting, and Woodhill explained on Cricinfo that he uses muscle memory and a sharp mind to hit the ball exactly where he wants it to go, every time.

The Australian, a former Pakistan batting coach, said: "He has trained himself to repeat.

"What I mean by that is that before going out into the match, he is playing the same game. It's not like he is trying to play a certain way and then can't repeat that.

"When he wants to hit the ball to a certain area, he is not thinking how he is doing it technically. He is just repeating. He is seeing the opportunity and taking that opportunity.

"It's the whole holistic channel. From his diet to his fitness to how he prepares for his innings is the same every time. So the consistency is there. The fitness is there, so he can physically do what he wants to do.

"Mechanics are sound, so he is able to mechanically perform the way he wants to perform. Because he is stronger and fitter, he doesn't have to manufacture shots. Now when he is hitting the ball aerial, they are landing ten metres beyond the rope.

"He is not fighting physics or mechanics. Himself and Davey Warner were consistent because day in day out they had the physical attributes needed to back up the mechanical structure they had put in place over a period of time."