ENG vs IND 2018: Stuart Broad Reveals His Plans To Stop Virat Kohli In Test Series

England pace spearhead Stuart Broad has given an insight on his plans to stop India skipper Virat Kohli in the upcoming five-match Test series.

The momentum will be the hosts after their win in the ODIs. England came from behind to beat India 2-1 and would be keen to continue the run in Tests too. However, one man who can dash their hopes is Virat Kohli. Arguably the best batsman in the world at the moment, the 29-year old has done well in the series so far but is yet to show the performances that has made him one of the most feared batsmen in the world.

England is well aware of Kohli’s batting exploits and Broad is leaving no stone unturned to make sure the India star does not last long on the crease. The veteran pacer said England would analyse their performance against Kohli during the 2014 series in order to keep him quiet again.

“We’ll look at footage from 2014, when we really limited the amount of runs he got. He’s improved a lot as a player since then and learned a lot from that series. Since then he’s got runs in Australia and South Africa, and scored a lot against us in India,” Broad told Daily Mail.

The right-arm pacer further insisted that bowling on pads to Kohli early on can have adverse effects.

“You’ve got to stay away from his pads early which sounds ridiculous, but it is like Jonathan Trott. People said go to his pads early, then suddenly he had hit 20 balls and he’s in.

“I will probably lean away from him being an lbw candidate early, because that gets him going and once he gets in his conversion-rate is fantastic,” he said.

In 2014, Kohli had endured a torrid time, scoring only 134 runs from 10 innings as India lost the series 3-1.

He scored 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20 in the five Tests and finished the series with an average of 13.50.

However, Kohli has come a long way since that disastrous tour. He has already proved himself in Australia and South Africa. During the tour of Australia in 2014-15, he had slammed four hundreds in four Tests.

The Indian captain has since also scored six double hundreds including four in successive series. Against England in the five-Test series at home, Kohli scored 655 runs and led India to a 4-0 triumph. He was also in top form in South Africa, smashing 871 runs across formats. He was the leading run-scorer in the Test and ODI series. The right-handed batsman will now be eager to leave his mark in England too.

Another man who can hurt England in the series is chinaman Kuldeep Yadav. The left-arm spinner had given the English batsmen a tough time in T20Is and ODIs before they managed to do well against him in the last two ODIs. And Broad believes England’s Test team can benefit from the time some of their batsmen have spent in the middle against the spinner.

“They’ll have got used to his variations and his pace. They will know what areas they will look to score off, and they should be more comfortable playing his mystery spin.

“From a selfish Test-match side of it, the batsmen have had a really good look at a spinner who could be very dangerous in the conditions we’re likely to play in,” he said.