'Wait for that one delivery that nips away' - AB de Villiers' advice for SA bowlers to dismiss Virat Kohli

Team India will look to end their Test series win drought in South Africa as they take on the Proteas in a two-match series from Tuesday, December 26 at SuperSport Park, Centurion. The series will mark the return of senior pros Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin after the ODI World Cup 2023.

Notably, Kohli has returned home ahead of the first Test due to a family emergency but is expected to be back for the series in time. The onus of carrying the Indian batting will once again fall on his shoulders as he has a phenomenal record in South Africa in Tests. Ahead of the series, former South Africa batter AB de Villiers has revealed a plan to dismiss Kohli.

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"Only way to get a Virat Kohli kind of batter out is a very orthodox way of bowling on the fourth stump channel and play a waiting game. And wait for that one delivery which nips a bit far away. You can't attack a good player," AB De Villiers was quoted as saying by HindustanTimes.

De Villiers further compared Kohli with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and said that the bowlers will have to be consistent in the off-stump channel forcing  Kohli to make a mistake.

"Like in case of Tendulkar, it was silly to always wait for leg before (to an incoming delivery). Because he would hit you through mid-wicket. So bowl those deliveries outside off-stump (to Virat) and wait for one to either nip away or nip in," he added.

Virat Kohli has scored 719 runs in Tests in South Africa

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Notably, Kohli has scored 719 runs from 14 innings played in Tests in South Africa at an average of 51.35 with two hundreds and three fifties to his name and a highest score of 153. He was also the leading run scorer of the 2018 series between the two teams scoring 286 runs from three innings at an average of 47.66 and was also the only centurion from both teams across three Tests.