Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar encouraged to engage in 'open dialogue' with Virat Kohli: What advice can they offer?

Virat Kohli seems to have encountered a weakness in his game, and it's those balls outside off-stump. In each of his four innings in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli has been dismissed edging deliveries pitched on the fourth or fifth stump. It's puzzling why he continues to be lured into playing at these deliveries, but time is ticking. Even a player of Kohli's caliber is struggling to find a solution to this issue. At 36, it's not just about fitness for Kohli, who is known for his supreme athleticism, but also about reflexes and muscle memory playing a crucial role in his performance.

In the nets, Kohli seems to be doing no wrong. However, once the match begins, the same old, frustrating pattern of nicking the dreaded outside off-stump balls emerges. With India having to pay the price for the same glaring errors, former India batter Devang Gandhi, who has also coached Delhi's Ranji Trophy and the Bengal Under-19 teams, reckons the time has come for coaches to take matters into their own hands. Head coach Gautam Gambhir and, more importantly, assistant-cum-batting coach Abhishek Nayar must spend time with Kohli and devise a solution for him to get rid of this issue once and for all. Having said that, it won't be as easy and straightforward as one assumes, given the two have just entered the Indian coaching set-up.

"It would be very easy to target Nayar as a low-hanging fruit or, for that matter, Gautam. But they have just come into the system. To discuss or nudge a player, first, you need to be around for some time, and once there is some mutual trust between the two, you can offer him solutions. But at this level, it is more about the experienced player's own mental make-up," Gandhi told PTI.

"If you watch his training videos available for the public, I find him doing all the right things. During training he is playing close to his body. But the moment it is the match situation, the hands are moving towards those channel deliveries like conditioned reflex or muscle memory. The moment his bat is away from the body, the bat-face will open up towards cover. Now this is a white ball problem of hitting through the line. In India the ball will hit the bottom of the bat, but in Australia, it will towards the upper part."

Even in his pomp, Kohli battled this issue but had them under control on most occasions. Even if he didn't, the fact that he used to pile heaps of runs slid the technical but under the carpet. But, cut to 2024, and with Kohli's frequency of big scores increasing, every dismissal comes under the scanner. Irrespective of what Gambhir and Nayar want, Gandhi feels they cannot change Kohli's deep-rooted technique after all these years; hence, the switch needs to come from Virat himself, understanding that at this stage of his career, things that worked for him five years ago, won't.

'Honest conversations are necessary'

"What solution can Gambhir or Nayar possibly give, apart from telling him to not play those deliveries? After 30 Test hundreds, Virat doesn't need to be told that but at 36, does he have that patience to accept that now if he scores a hundred, it will be off 200 balls and not 140 like earlier times? Can he bide those extra 60 balls? It's about controlling the mind. You can be a sounding board for players like Tendulkar and Kohli but at this stage, you can't coach them. Coaching happens at junior level," Gandhi added.

"Of course, at some point, honest conversations are necessary. But first, they should ask him what his corrective options are and then offer their own if they have something different to contribute."

Gandhi's thoughts were echoed by another former India cricketer, who believes that although Gambhir is a two-time World Cup winner and a very successful ODI and Test batter, even he is not assured of being 100 percent correct. "Not all great players or players of repute happen to be great coaches. They might have done some incredible things as players and knew what to do and how to react during a particular situation. But coaching is science and not many can tell why certain things need to be done. Even Gautam used to play with hard hands and dab towards slips in Australia and England.

"You can still work with younger guys, but difficult to mould the older ones who don't get enough time to work on their game in a packed calendar."

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