India’s veteran batter Virat Kohli recalled an honest chat he had with Ravi Shastri after he had a disastrous run on 2014 England tour. Kohli could only manage 134 runs in five Test matches against England at an average of 13.4 as he was continuously troubled by experienced seamer James Anderson.

At that time, Shastri was appointed as the team’s director and the former all-rounder asked Kohli if he was afraid to play the bouncer, to which the then rising star answered in the negative. Shastri then advised Kohli to stand outside his crease to negate the swing on foreign tours.

Kohli said on One8 YouTube Channel, “When he came in, I had those failures in England in Test cricket, and I was quite sensitive about it. So he didn’t push me immediately. He knew to find a space and to first build a relationship. So I think over the course of the next two, two-and-a-half months, we played a lot of white-ball cricket, played in England, played in India, and the one thing that he told me when we had to go play in Australia, he asked me a simple question: ‘Are you scared to face the bouncer?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ He said, ‘You stand outside your crease.’”

Subsequently, after making the adjustments in his standing position, Kohli reaped rewards as he went on to score 692 runs in four Test matches at a stunning average of 86.50 against Australia in 2014-2015.

“So for me, if I was in a place where I just wanted to protect what I know, I would have been finished. So the fact that he straight away said this to me, and I was willing to say, ‘You know what, I’m going to do it. If that makes me perform better, I’m going to do it.’ So I went to play in Australia in 2014-15. I scored 700 runs in that series. I was standing outside the crease, length balls, I was driving on the up. I’d never done that in my career. I was like, ‘Wow.’ It’s a level of trust.’”

On 2018 tour of England, Kohli proved his mettle in English conditions, scoring 593 runs in five Test matches.