Nasser Hussain’s three-point plan to take Virat Kohli’s wicket

Hussain has suggested three possible ways to the England bowlers of getting Kohli out: "Bore him, bounce him and work on his ego".

He may have been appointed Indian captain across formats, but nothing really has changed for Virat Kohli. His insatiable hunger to score runs and succeed remains the same. Renowned cricket expert Harsha Bhogle quite aptly summarised his effort of 105-ball 122 after India’s win in the first One-Day International (ODI) of the three-match series against England. “Just another day at work for Virat Kohli. Brushed his teeth, had a shower, breakfast, century in a chase. Just another day really!” he wrote on his Twitter handle. It indeed was visible in Kohli’s essay. At Pune, chasing an improbable 351 to win, the master of chase got into the act once again, hammering a match-winning hundred.

It was not just his hundred that won India the match, but also his influence on Kedar Jadhav, who matched him stroke-to-stroke en route his 76-ball 120. They stitched a 200-run stand after India were reduced to 63 for 4 and brought them back into the match. India eventually won it by 3 wickets and took 1-0 lead in the series. At the moment, things do not look good for England, with Kohli looking unstoppable. When England players take field in the second ODI in Cuttack on Thursday, they will have this monumental task of how to stop the Kohli juggernaut in front of them.

Ahead of the game, they have got some words of wisdom from Nasser Hussain. The former England captain, who is in India to commentate during the matches, gave a three-point plan for the England team to dismiss Kohli. In his recent column for The Daily Mail, Hussain has suggested three possible ways of getting Kohli out: “Bore him, bounce him and work on his ego”.

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“England might be starting to think: ‘How on earth do we get Virat Kohli out?’ But you always have to believe there is something you can do, otherwise there is little point going out there in the second ODI in Cuttack,” he started his column before quickly getting to his three-point plan. “Perhaps Eoin Morgan has to take one side of the field out of the equation, go around the wicket and hide the ball outside off stump while telling his bowlers that he does not mind if they go for the odd wide or two.”

“Then they could try to keep him off strike a bit more than they did in Pune on Sunday by allowing the lad at the other end a single off the fifth or sixth ball, or bring the field up to Kohli towards the end of the over to try to make him play a big shot that could lead to his downfall,” Hussain wrote.

The former England captain also suggested bouncing out Kohli can be an option. “An option England may well employ, if conditions dictate, is to bring Liam Plunkett into the side, put three men out and go for the short stuff. I would also like them to try to get stuck into him a bit verbally because he can have a short fuse. Try to work on his ego, like teams would attempt to do with Kevin Pietersen,” he wrote.

Hussain, who had recently interviewed Kohli for Sky Sports, was all praise for the Indian captain. “You only have to look at social media to see how much Kohli’s peers respect him — and the short-arm jab that sent Chris Woakes for six in Pune was one of the best cricket strokes I have ever seen — so he is unquestionably the best batsman in the world right now,” he wrote, before concluding on an optimistic note for England. “The man is something special but he’s also human. And England have five more chances on this tour to prove they can come up with a way to stop him.”