'Had been told beforehand to not say anything to him'- Graeme Swann reveals England's pre-match plans for Virat Kohli
Graeme Swann was the joint-highest wicket-taker during India vs England 2012 Test series.
India will take on England in a five-match Test series as their third assignment of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2023-25 starting from January 25 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. During the much-awaited series, all eyes will be once again on the star India batter Virat Kohli who has a brilliant record against the Three Lions in the longest format.
Notably, England was the last team to beat India at home in a Test series in 2012-13. Recently, former England off-spinner who played a major role in the historic win, being the joint leading wicket-taker of the series with 20 scalps, shared England’s pre-match discussions around Kohli. Swann revealed that they had been told to not get involved in a verbal battle with the India batter as he enjoys it.
"We had been told beforehand to not say anything to this bloke because he absolutely revels in a battle in the field. Steven Finn got driven for a couple of incredible fours and he lost the plot and had a go at him and realised his mistake straight away,” Swann said on the Sky Sports podcast.
“Virat roared up like a tiger and Finn just doubled down and got smashed everywhere. We knew what he could do in the white-ball format, but back then he hadn't really done anything in Test cricket,” he added.
Virat Kohli was the leading run-scorer against England in 2016 and 2018 Test series
Notably, Kohli didn’t have a memorable series as he amassed 188 runs from seven innings. However, he scored a brilliant 103 in the fourth Test in Nagpur which ended in a draw. In the following Test series between the two nations in India, being the captain of the team, Kohli finished as the leading run scorer with 655 runs from eight innings.
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He further conquered his demons against the Dukes ball in the 2018 tour to England, scoring 593 runs from ten innings at an average of 59.30 with two hundreds and three fifties. In the upcoming series, the Delhi-born batter will once again look to dominate England having found his form back across all three formats in 2023.
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