Virat Kohli: “His doosra was quite difficult to face”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

India captain Virat Kohli has admitted that he initially struggled against legendary Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal.

Kohli conceded that Ajmal’s doosra was “quite difficult to face”.

In order to combat the problem, the Indian skipper decided to play Ajmal “as a leg-spinner” and “hit him over covers consistently”.

Not only did this approach work, but Kohli found that the “potency of his threat became lesser”.

“Pakistan had a very challenging bowling attack. They had Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, Wahab Riaz, Shahid Afridi. Then Saeed Ajmal was at his peak and (Mohammad) Hafeez used to bowl as well,” Kohli told India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin during an Instagram live session as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

“We played Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka before Asia Cup. There was a warm-up game in the tournament against Pakistan where I decided that I am going to start playing Saeed Ajmal as a leg-spinner. His doosra was quite difficult to face and his off-spin wasn’t that lethal.

“So I decided I am going to hit him over covers consistently and it just paid off. As soon as I negated his doosra, then the potency of his threat became lesser. Even during the Asia Cup game, I scored most of my runs against him on the off-side.”

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