Captaincy has not affected Virat Kohli: Virender Sehwag

Virat Kohli has having a dream run with the bat at the moment. The RCB skipper began the year on a high and has since then milking runs effortlessly irrespective of the conditions and opposition. The current IPL season has also witnessed stupendous performances from him.

Former India opener, Virender Sehwag, has heaped praises for the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper, stating that no one else as the consistency with which Virat has been performing at the moment.

Sehwag, writing for sport360.com said that the right-hander has been scoring big without taking risks.

“Virat Kohli is going through an excellent phase in Twenty20 cricket. The consistency with which he has been scoring the runs, I don’t think anyone else has.”

Sehwag also spoke about Virat Kohli’s batting strengths. He says that Kohli’s versatile approach helps him scores runs at a good rate without looking intimidating.

“He is going through a purple patch and the best part about it is he is scoring all these runs without taking risks. Not only is he scoring big, his strike rate is around 130-140, which is amazing. Many players can hit big shots and look intimidating in T20s but very few can eliminate risk from their batting and still score runs at such a good rate.”

“His performance in this IPL has been superb and it is evident that he knows exactly where his strengths lie. He has the option of pacing his innings for 12-15 overs and then change gears according to the situation. And when the death overs come, Virat has the ability to score at a rate of 180 or even 200. This mixture of knowing his strengths and having explosive batsmen in the team has allowed Kohli to play his natural game throughout the IPL.”

Sehwag also analyzed how Virat Kohli identified his weakness and get rid of his batting flaws.

“The biggest change that I have seen in his batting, compared to when he started as a young batsman in my state side Delhi, is his technique outside the off stump. If you remember, during the England tour of 2014 he regularly got out to full balls outside the off stump. He identified that weakness and worked on it.

“He spent a lot of time with Sachin Tendulkar to iron out those flaws and even India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar helped Virat tighten his game up. This has resulted in him converting a weakness into a strong point and this is why he has become so good,” he added.

Virat Kohli has also shown commendable leadership skills. The Delhi-lad was appointed as the India’s Test skipper in 2014 and has not shown any signs of feeling the extra burden due to captaincy. Sehwag, too, mentioned that the 27-year-old has managed captaincy efficiently.

“For some players, the added responsibility of captaincy might be too heavy a burden but for Virat, it has not affected his batting style at all. He had been scoring runs before being made India’s Test captain and now after it as well.”