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India's white-ball tour of the United Kingdom has been full of disappointment so far. The team first lost the two-match T20I series against Ireland and then suffered another embarrassment in England, where the hosts secured the five-match T20I series 3-0 with one game still left to play.
With the T20I series already gone, India will now turn its full attention to the upcoming three-match ODI series against England. This series will see the comeback of India’s experienced icons Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma under the captaincy of Shubman Gill. Amid this, Gautam Gambhir wanted Virat Kohli as Test captain after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy defeat.
Sanjay Bangar reveals Virat Kohli's secret England preparation after 2014 failure
Before the upcoming ODI series, former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar opened up about Virat Kohli's preparation for batting in England. He explained how Kohli worked extremely hard after struggling during the 2014 tour of England.
Bangar shared that Virat Kohli did not simply move on after that disappointing tour; rather, he decided to improve his game against swing bowling and spent a lot of time working on his technique before returning to England a few years later, and at that time, he dominated the English attack.
Sanjay Bangar said on The Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan, "When you go to England, the entire game comes down to two things: how well you counter the swing and how late you can play the ball," Bangar said. "Because Virat Kohli did not have a great run during the 2014 tour, he put in an immense amount of work during 2017-18 to fix that.”
Virat Kohli's secret against swing bowling?
The former Indian coach has explained that batting in England is completely different from batting in many other countries, and the biggest challenge is handling the swinging ball and waiting as long as possible before playing each delivery. He revealed Kohli focused mainly on these two areas. Amid this, Gautam Gambhir under pressure as BCCI set to review his tenure after England series.
Meanwhile, Bangar shared that India's coaching staff created practice sessions in Mumbai that were designed to feel like English conditions. The players reached the ground very early in the morning when there was dew on the pitch and moisture in the air. These conditions helped the ball swing more, giving the batters valuable practice before traveling to England.
The former RCB coach further explained, “Our routine was brutal; we would hit a Mumbai ground by 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning just to chase the early dew. We wanted to start as early as possible so we could replicate English conditions, utilizing the heavy morning atmosphere and the natural moisture on an uncovered pitch.”
Wet pitches and brutal practice
Bangar also revealed that when the weather became sunny and the pitch started drying, the coaching staff added water to the surface to keep the pitch damp. This helped the ball continue moving, making batting even more difficult during practice.
He added, “If the sun came out and the moisture on the wicket started dropping, we would literally pour extra water onto the surface just to keep the ball snaking around.”
Sanjay Bangar reveals the hard work behind his England success
He said Kohli never avoided these tough sessions. The former India captain kept practicing again and again until he became more confident against swing bowling. Sanjay Bangar believes that this hard work later helped India perform much better in England.
He said several Indian batters benefited from these special training sessions because they had already faced similar conditions before the tour started.
Sanjay Bangar signed off by saying, “Virat did that grueling practice repeatedly. Because three or four of our core batsmen managed to fine-tune their batting through those exact simulations, we were highly successful in winning matches over there.”
