Legendary Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist believes Virat Kohli should learn from the God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar. Gilchrist suggested that Virat Kohli could be better off exercising patience during the Adelaide second Test match, in which he was dismissed for 7 and 11 runs across two innings, respectively.
Gilchrist's advice to Virat Kohli
In this series, Kohli has been dismissed three times for edging the ball behind the wickets. Speaking on Cricbuzz, Gilchrist suggested that Kohli watch Sachin Tendulkar's knock in Sydney in 2004. In that game, as the batter was edging the ball outside off stump and did not hit a single shot through the cover.
"The biggest battle is not with what's coming towards you from the bowler or the skill of the opposition, it's more about battle between your ears. So, not suggesting that Virat scrambled any sense, but maybe he's got to try and hone in on what Sachin Tendulkar did at the SCG. And say 'right he'd say, right, I'm not gonna go chase anything outside off stump. You come to me.' You just play the patience game," Adam Gilchrist said on Cricbuzz after the Adelaide Test.
"He's got enough experience under his belt to know that he's mentally tough. He's carried the weight of expectation since U-19 level, entering the IPL and becoming the icon that is. He should be able to say to himself, I'm going to do what's within my capacity to do the best thing for the team and if it's a long patient game, so be it. If you play long enough, you're probably gonna have to evolve with different ways and this might be an opportunity for Virat to do that," he added.
Sachin Tendulkar's knock in SCG
The legendary Sachin Tendulkar smashed an unbeaten knock of 241 runs against Australia in Sydney during the 2003-2004 tour. The knock is an example of Sachin's god-like temperament and control. Before his game, Sachin was seemingly struggling to score runs, especially against deliveries pitched outside off stump. He lost his wicket a lot of times while going for the cover drive and this even appeared to be the plan for the Aussie pace attack which was led by Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, and Nathan Bracken. However, Sachin came up with a brilliant strategy against it and refrained from playing the cover drive throughout the knock.
Rather, Tendulkar shifted towards scoring runs on the leg side. He played 436 balls during that 241-run knock and not even once tried playing the cover drive. His knock later got him the Player of the Match award in the match that ended in a draw.