Former India captain and current head coach Rahul Dravid‘s first impression of former India captain Virat Kohli was that of an “okay player”. The same was once revealed by prominent broadcaster Harsha Bhogle during a show on Cricbuzz.
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“I looked at this kid and I said, ‘Yeah, He is okay’,” Bhogle once recalled what Dravid said of Kohli in 2008. Kohli, who had led India U-19 to a World Cup title and subsequently made his debut for the senior team the same year, did manage to change Dravid’s perception of him in the years to come.
Having played his first match for India under legendary captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kohli shared the dressing room with Dravid 18 times across formats. Out of their six partnerships with each other for India, two which standout had come in Cardiff ODI (170-run third-wicket partnership) against England and Perth Test against Australia (84-run fifth-wicket partnership).
Interestingly, Kohli had outscored Dravid on both the occasions. Although Dravid made his ODI and Test debut 12 years before Kohli’s first international match, he made his T20I debut a year after Kohli played his first match in the shortest format.
This Is How Rahul Dravid Realized That Virat Kohli Would Become A Special Player
A chief reason behind Dravid changing his impression of Kohli was the manner in which the latter worked on his weaknesses. In the same conversation with Bhogle, Dravid talked about how Kohli’s determination to better himself left no way for past weaknesses in his batting.
“But every time I saw him, I could see that that weakness is gone. That it’s gone. [Whenever] I saw him, he came back a better player. That’s when I knew he was going to be special,” Dravid told Bhogle as disclosed by the latter on Cricbuzz.
As mentioned by Bhogle right at the start of the video, no cricketer is bereft of weaknesses. Having said that, what defines players like Kohli from the others is the sheer firmness of purpose to improve their game.
Other than playing for India, Kohli and Dravid also represented Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League between 2008-2010. While Kohli played under Dravid in the inaugural season of the IPL, both of them played under former India captain Anil Kumble for the next two seasons.
What are Virat Kohli’s weaknesses?
Kohli, like many other batters, has faced a lot of trouble against out-swing deliveries pitching around the fourth stump line. The right-hand batter had managed to make it a usual form of dismissal during a lean patch in the recent years.
Speaking particularly of pacers, Kohli used to plant his front leg way across the off-stump only to be found wanting in front of the stumps against both right-arm and left-arm bowlers. In addition to the same, Kohli has also been found wanting against leg-spinners in recent times.
In fact, if truth be told, all these weaknesses have been exposed by bowlers during various phases of Kohli’s career. That being said, Kohli always looking to overcome these difficulties is what makes him one of the best batters of the contemporary era.
While shortcomings are part of any athlete’s journey, only those who find ways of gaining mastery over these flaws thrive under pressure of the highest level. Kohli, unequivocally, is one of those cricketers.
