IPL 2022: Which ‘important shot’ Ravi Shastri advices Virat Kohli to focus on?

Mumbai: Former India coach Ravi Shastri seems to be very impressed with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli’s fluent knock. Batting against Punjab Kings in their first game of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, he passes on a valuable piece of advice to Kohli regarding his shot selection.

RCB registered their first win of the season against KKR on Wednesday (30 March) as the Faf du Plessis led side clinched a 3-wicket thrilling victory at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai. However, Virat Kohli didn’t have a good day with the bat as he scored 12 in the run-chase. Shastri reckons he wants Kohli to play the ‘important’ sweep shot against spinners, freely.

“The thing I liked most about Virat was his fluency,” Shastri was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo.

“He was prepared to use his feet against the spinners. Now he has to bring out the sweep. It’s a very important shot. He doesn’t play it much, but he should, with freedom.” he added.

Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli had wonderful times during the former’s tenure as coach of the Indian cricket team, further advised Kohli to face spin bowlers in the nets in order to improve his chances of playing the sweep shot. Kohli’s woes against spin bowling is something the RCB batter have to overcome and Shastri believes that the sweep shot could be the solution for it.

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“The four days you get in the nets (between matches), he should get rid of Raghu (D Raghavendra, the throwdown specialist), and the fast bowlers – he has played them a lot in the last one-and-a-half to two years. Get a spinner and keep playing the sweep. Because if he uses his feet and starts to play the sweep, any spinner will think twice, thrice about what to bowl”, he said.

In their first match Kohli scored an unbeaten 41 off 29 balls during his 118-run stand with du Plessis, who played a spectacular knock of 88 from 57 balls. But Kohli did not get a chance to use the sweep shots as he was out in the third over of RCB’s chase of 128 against KKR.

“He does play the shot at training. But the IPL is the sort of tournament where he can practice it with some conviction, because he has to play the shot. It’s not like you are playing it in the nets and you won’t get a chance to play it in a game, in Australia or England. So there is no point. Maybe against Nathan Lyon, but he won’t get to face much spin there, it’s mainly fast bowlers”, Shastri concluded.