He Wasn’t Operating In The Best Version Of Himself: Gary Kirsten Recalls First Meeting With Virat Kohli

Former India head coach Gary Kirsten has revealed what was his first impression of Virat Kohli when he met the batting star for the first time in 2008. Virat Kohli earned his maiden call-up in the senior team just five months after guiding India to glory in the U19 World Cup.

Kirsten was the coach when Kohli made his debut in a ODI series in Sri Lanka. Recalling his first meeting with Virat Kohli, the former South Africa opener said he was mighty impressed with the young Delhi cricketer’s skills and abilities but he still had a lot to learn in terms of his batting. He also revealed the advice he gave to the youngster at that time.

“Our relationship was formulated around him as a young player coming in, and me trying to say to him that he has a long way to go and to build in some consistent behaviors into the way he played this game.

“When I met Virat first up, he had great abilities and talent and he was a young guy. But I kind of knew straight away that he wasn’t operating in the best version of himself. So we had a number of discussions,”  Kirsten said on The RK show on Youtube.

He further recalled an incident when Virat Kohli got out playing a rash shot during an ODI series against Sri Lanka at home. Kirsten then gave him a valuable advice after which Kohli scored a century.

“I’ll never forget one when we were playing an ODI series against Sri Lanka, and he was batting beautifully and he was on 30-odd not out. He then decided that he would try and hit the (bowler) over long-on’s head for six. And he got holed out.

“I just said to him, ‘If you’re going to take your cricket to the next level, you need to hit that ball down the ground for one. You know you can hit a lot of balls up the ground, but there’s a lot of risk attached to that.’ I think he took that on board, he got a hundred in the next one-day in Kolkata,” Kirsten recalled.

Well, Kirsten’a advice indeed made a big impression on Virat Kohli who is arguably the best batsman in the world right now. The India captain is widely regarded as the best batsman across formats.

As far as Kirsten’s tenure with Team India is concerned, it ended in 2011. He enjoyed a very successful spell with the team. The tenure ended with the 2011 World Cup title, 2 years after the Test side scaled the top of the ICC rankings for the first time in history. After leaving Team India, he coached South Africa but without much success.

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