Virender Sehwag reveals Virat Kohli's unusual weakness in the early days

During the rain delay in the first T20I between India and Australia, former opener turned commentator Virender Sehwag praised Indian captain Virat Kohli and pointed out how the right-hander became a complete batsman. He recalled Kohli’s past when he used to bat with Gautam Gambhir and him for Delhi.

Though surprising when you hear it for the first time, back in the old days, Kohli used to struggle while rotating the strike. The seniors would talk to him on how to improve on that aspect. Sehwag also pointed that the 28-year-old sharpened his ability to hit fours and rotate strike rather than working on his ability to hit big sixes.

“When Kohli used to open with me and Gauti, he didn’t know how to take singles. We used to discuss this in the dressing room that he needs to learn how to take singles. He has perhaps learned from experience. Also, he has sharpened his ability to hit fours and rotate strike rather than hitting big sixes,” Sehwag said.

His issues with rotating the strike meant that the Indian skipper was often found scoring his runs at a slower pace. One of the main reasons was his failure to find gaps and take singles to keep the scorecard ticking and his inability to hit sixes at will. Virat Kohli, himself, has admitted that he is still not good at hitting big sixes but focuses on his strength of finding gaps to steal boundaries.

However, it’s all in the past for the current best limited overs batsman. He has also been in the Top 5 rankings in the longest format. Such has been his evolution and improvisation in the game that he has often played knocks without a single aerial shot but utilized his weakness-turned-into-strength of rotating the strike to more often than not be on the top of the game.