Slower deliveries are ineffective against Virat Kohli, explains India and RCB teammate Harshal Patel

Virat Kohli has been among the runs with days to go for the T20 World Cup 2022. The former India captain is expected to play a vital role in India’s campaign Down Under. And his Indian teammate Harshal Patel explained that bowling knuckleball or any other slower deliveries against Kohli was ineffective.

“To Virat, for sure, because he is not someone who’s going to muscle you. These slower deliveries are more effective when people are trying to muscle you. For someone like Virat, whenever I’ve played against him, he steps out and makes it a full toss and plays it through midwicket,” Harshal told ESPNCricinfo.

The 31-year-old pacer, who is expected to play an important role for India in absence of key pacers, added that such has been Virat’s temperament that if the batting star connects well, he will find the boundary, forcing someone like Harshal to think out of the box.

“If he gets good bat on the ball, he is going to get a boundary between long-on and midwicket or he is going to get a double. And when someone plays that delivery like that, you have to adapt. But when someone is going deep in the crease and just trying to slog you over long-on or deep midwicket or down the ground, that’s where the slower ball becomes much more effective,” mentioned Harshal.

Harshal further spoke of his two slow deliveries that earned him much success during IPL 2021 when he went on to grab the purple cap.

“I have two. Both are off-cutters. The difference is whether I want to use the pitch, whether the pitch allows me natural variation, or not. If I don’t want to use the pitch, then I try and bowl it from the front of the hand because it allows me that topspin.

“So it works on better pitches with better bounce, where even if you fail to deceive the batter in the air, sometimes what happens is, it sort of just kicks enough on you [as a batter] and that doesn’t allow you to get timing and trajectory in the shot – it goes higher rather than flatter,” Harshal said.

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