He made me look like a fool: Virat Kohli names bowler who foxed him early in his career

Virat Kohli may be a nightmare for bowlers, but there was a time when even the greatest batsman in the world today had problems facing quality bowlers. Kohli, captain of the Indian team, revealed an incident when he had no clue facing former leg-spinner Shane Warne.

Although Kohli and Warne never faced each other in international cricket, the two did cross paths in the IPL, and the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman, who was still young at the time, recalled how he struggled to read the former Rajasthan Royals skipper.

Also Read | Wanted Sachin to slam the ton against us in 2003 World Cup: Akhtar

“Shane Warne made me look like a fool during IPL in 2009. I played him again in 2011 in Rajasthan, nothing significant happened there. He did not get me out, I did not score many runs against him. After the match, he came up to me and said never say anything back to the bowler, but obviously I did not listen (laughs),” he added.

While the concept of fantasy cricket battles is nothing new, to think of it, how would Kohli in his prime stack up against Warne in his peak. Expressing his thoughts on the fantasy showdown, Warne explained how he would bowl to Kohli if it were to happen. And no surprises, the former legspinner had a pretty interesting plan.

“I think the one thing you need to do with Virat, which is one thing teams don’t do enough of, is take away both sides of the wicket,” Warne had told ESPNCricinfo in March.

Also Read | He was India’s first to hit good ball for runs: Manjrekar on batting legend

“If you’re going to bowl to Virat Kohli, you either bowl at leg stump and protect the on side, or you bowl wide of off stump and you protect the off side. You cannot bowl at the stumps, because he can hit you both ways. So, I think you’ve to take out one side of the field. Protect just one side of the field, that’s how you bowl to very good players.

“I’d be bowling wide of off stump and letting him try to cover drive with a slip, short cover and some protection out there. So then it’ll be very hard for him to get it over the leg side. That’s what I’d be trying to do and hopefully get a little bit lucky and he mis-hits one.”