Don't Miss

ENG

Cricket
Football
NDTV Podcast
Formula 1
Tennis
Golf
Badminton
- Kabaddi
- Boxing
- Athletics
- Chess
- Swimming
- Shooting
- Wrestling
- Table tennis
- Othersports
- NFL
- NBA
- NHL
- US Streamers
- MMA
- WWE

Dark / Light mode

Oct 10,2026 09:15 AM IST

Virat Kohli Spends Extra Hours Against Spinners On Roughed Up Track

facebook

twitter

Settings

Change Font Size

A A
Change Language

हिंदी | Hindi
Focus on Story

Select Language

Languages
हिंदी | Hindi

Dark / Light mode

Featured Links
Featured Sports
- Cricket
- Football
- Formula 1
- Tennis
- Hockey
- Golf
- Badminton
More Sports
- Kabaddi
- Boxing
- Athletics
- Chess
- Swimming
- Shooting
- Wrestling
- Table tennis
- Othersports
More from NDTV
- NDTV
- Business
- Hindi
- Movies
- Cricket
- Health
- Food
- Tech
- Auto
- Apps
- Trains

India vs Australia 09 Feb 23 to 22 Mar 23

Scoreboard
News
Photos
Videos
Fixtures
teams
players
Venues
Results
More
- Stats

arrow-down reddit snapchat twitter facebook comments email printer search bell top-nav reddit-fill snapchat-fill twitter-fill facebook-fill share whatsapp-fill bookmark arrow-rgt arrow-next arrow-up refresh close link cog star book zap cricket football tennis formula-1 badminton hockey golf boxing ndtv-n check left-arrow right-arrow

Live Cricket Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

India Matches

India vs Australia

Football Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

ISL

IPL 2026

All Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

India Matches

EPL

3rd ODI, Australia in India, 3 ODI Series, 2023 at Chennai, Mar 22, 2023

India

248 (49.1)

Australia

269 (49.0)

Australia beat India by 21 runs
2nd ODI, Australia in India, 3 ODI Series, 2023 at Cuddapah, Mar 19, 2023

India

117 (26.0)

Australia

121/0 (11.0)

Australia beat India by 10 wickets
1st ODI, Australia in India, 3 ODI Series, 2023 at Mumbai, Mar 17, 2023

India

191/5 (39.5)

Australia

188 (35.4)

India beat Australia by 5 wickets

Sports Home India vs Australia 2023 News Virat Kohli Spends Extra Hours Against Spinners On Roughed Up Track

Story ProgressBack to home

Virat Kohli Spends Extra Hours Against Spinners On Roughed Up Track

Kohli looked at the rough created on that practice strip and then used his boots to create more abrasion.

Posted by Tushar Mamgaain
Updated: February 15, 2023 05:20 pm IST

Read Time: 2 min

facebook

twitter

E-mail

Australia and India will square off in the 2nd Test from Friday© AFP

A gleaming jet black Porsche arrived at the Ferozshah Kotla stadium at least half an hour before the arrival of the Indian team bus. Out came Virat Kohli and walked into the dressing room. Within minutes he was out, padded up and headed for the nets. He wanted additional batting time and arrived early for a session. He began with customary throw-downs and some knocking off net bowlers. Once a young fellow, bowling military medium, was pulled disdainfully off his backfoot, he asked for spinners.

"Spinners ko bulaao," he said and moved to the other net, where he worked on tackling of the spinners.

Kohli looked at the rough created on that practice strip and then used his boots to create more abrasion.

Batting coach Vikram Rathour, in fact, pointed at particular areas where he could make indents and let the ball talk.

The idea was to counter the natural variation off the surface where you land the ball on the rough and it can turn either side.

India A regular Saurabh Kumar, the talented left-arm spinner from UP, did ask a few probing questions.

There was one delivery where Kohli went on the backfoot. The ball didn't bounce after pitching. It was a kind of "shooter" that didn't rise. Kohli had a wry smile and looked at the surface.

There were two off spinners, net bowlers Pulkit Narang and Hrithik Shokeen who tossed up and at times mixed it up with flatter trajectory.

On the day, he regularly came down the track to cover the rough while driving Shokeen and Narang during that session. He wasn't very smooth to begin with as some of the shots weren't off the meat of the blade.

Kohli's struggles against spinners has been real and Feroz Shah Kotla track will be another slow turner like Nagpur if not slower. He was caught down the leg side when he tried to manoeuvre off-spinner Todd Murphy in the Nagpur Test.

There was a covering of grass but anyone who has watched how the Kotla pitch behaves will tell you that it is more about maintaining the firm bind of the surface.

But there would be some moisture underneath the surface during the morning session which will help the bowlers. But Kotla is a kind of track where both, run-making and wicket-taking is an arduous job.

Kohli's desperation to spend an extra hour at the nets and prepare himself to put his best foot forward is absolutely necessary as run-scoring is going to be a struggle.