Mashrafe Mortaza has a word of advice for his boys ahead of the historic Test against India

With just hours away from the historic Test between India and Bangladesh to commence, Bangladesh limited overs captain Mashrafe Mortaza gave a word of advice to his bowlers on how to counter the rival captain Virat Kohli who has been in sublime form across all formats. In the previous Test series against England, Kohli smashed a brilliant 235 and also became the first Indian to score 3 double centuries in a calendar year. He has worked tremendously hard on his fitness and it is showing off in his recent performances.

While speaking to the media back in Bangladesh, Mortaza said that there is no use of bowling outside the off stump to Kohli. Two years ago Kohli had a horrendous summer in England where he was repeatedly dismissed, poking deliveries outside the off-stump. Kohli is a completely different player now and his hard work has eradicated the flaws from his batting.

Mashrafe has advised his bowlers that rather than bowling at the corridor of uncertainty they should bowl short of length to the Indian captain. He further added that they have to pitch the ball accurately in order to be effective with the short pitched stuff.

“England and Australian bowlers targeted off stump to stop Virat Kohli. We also did that earlier. In T20 matches, I bound him in off stump and took his wicket. But in the recent past, Virat Kohli played exceptionally well in the off stump deliveries against England in their home soil,” Mortaza was quoted as saying by Sportzwiki.

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“That means he has already surpassed that weakness. He is making it harder to take his wickets for the bowlers. But nothing is impossible. If I would be there, I will target the off stump or throw short balls to him.”

“It could be possible to take his wickets delivering short balls. But it has to be accurate. After all the bowling should be accurate. My advice to the pacers are, an effective short spell of 3-4 overs is more important than delivering a long spell of 6 to 7 overs,” Mortaza concluded.