Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are the two giants who have become the face of contemporary cricket. Their creativity and excellence have upped the standards of the game to a new zenith. The year 2016 had been phenomenal in terms of form for Kohli and hence emerged the comparison with Sachin Tendulkar that led him to be termed as the ‘next Sachin’. Virat Kohli scored 2,595 runs across all formats at a whopping average of 86.50 in 2016, which is staggering! He has admitted that he was from the old school of cricket, where shots from the cricketing manual are regarded higher when pitted against more off-the-book shots. That makes him even more fascinating as he usually plays the ball at its merit and does not try to do something overtly creative and risky like AB de Villiers.
AB has become a modern day cricketing phenomena. The shots he plays can be quite imaginative, for example sweeping or reverse sweeping a fast bowl for a six. He has been known to attempt quite a few shots in an unruly fashion. But with Virat, you expect conventional shots and a game that is more soothing to the eye. Perhaps, the Indian batting mainstay is the best exponent of the cover drive in modern day and age.
So, in this article, we will discuss three shots that are missing from Virat Kohli’s repertoire which de Villers practices.
The Dilscoop:
This is a very risky shot as the batsman uses the pace to scoop the ball over the wicketkeepers head. He allows the ball to arrive at his bat, opens it’s face and plays it just over the head. It is a risky shot because if you do not execute it to perfection, you may quite badly injured. This is a shot which was first played by former Sri Lanka batsman Tilakaratne Dilshan, hence the name. This shot has since then been developed and adopted by cricketers like Brendon McCullum and AB de Villiers. Virat Kohli avoids playing this shot as there is a high element of risk involved in it.
Reverse sweep:
This is again another shot which filled with risks, but is fruitful as it can yield a lot of runs. This is a shot that requires a lot of practice. Andy Flower from Zimbabwe was a great exponent of this shot. Post the new millennium, the shot was perfected by many. Kevin Pietersen brought his own version of the shot. Pakistani cricketer Mushtaq Mohammad is credited to have invented the shot in the 1970s and it has been a popular shot ever since. Modern day players like AB play it with a lot of ease and expertise. Virat Kohli, again, does not prefer to play the shot because it involves a high element of risk.
Helicopter shot:
The shot was invented by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and has become a rage ever since. The yorker is considered to be the hardest ball to convert into runs or hit across the boundary. But MS Dhoni has broken the trend by introducing the helicopter shot. This is a shot where a batsman uses the length of the crease, goes deep in to meet the ball and gets under it to extend his swing. This is a shot that is still not in Virat’s closet. This is something we feel Virat should practise so that even the bowlers have a problem when throwing yorkers at him.
