London: Former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne on Sunday opined that many teams make the mistake of bowling to Indian captain Virat Kohli on the stumps.
“The one thing you need to do with Virat, which is one thing teams do not do enough of, is take away both sides of the wicket,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Warne, as saying.
Warne, while explaining the tactic, said bowling defensively to Kohli has given teams more chances of keeping him quiet.
“If you are going to bowl to Virat Kohli, you either bowl at leg stump and protect the on the side, or your bowl wide of off stump and you protect the off side. You cannot bowl at the stumps, because he can hit you both ways,” Warne said.
“So, I think you have to take out one side of the field. Protect just one side of the field, that is how you bowl to very good players,” he said.
However, Warne acknowledged that it would require an element of luck to contain the world number one on the ICC Test and ODI batting charts.
“I had been bowling wide of off stump and letting him try to cover drive with a slip, short cover and some protection out there. So then, it will be very hard for him to get it over the leg side. That is what I had been trying to do, and hopefully, get a little bit lucky and he mis-hits one,” he said.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]