'A player who can play according to the conditions and team requirements is a better player.'
'This is his biggest quality.'
Virat Kohli's patient knock in the first Test against the West Indies was not his most fluent, but Batting Coach Vikram Rathour lauded him for changing his game according to the team's requirements.
Kohli, who was dropped twice (on 40 and 72), was made to work hard for his patient innings of 76 in the first Test against the West Indies, which India won by an innings and 141 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
The Dominica pitch offered a lot of assistance to the spinners as Kohli struggled to get going, taking 81 balls to get his first boundary and managed just five boundaries in his 182-ball knock.
'As a batting coach, I believe that cricket is about adaptability. He is an aggressive player who likes to dominate definitely, but a better player is one who can change his game,' Rathour said on Sunday.
'A player who can play according to the conditions and team requirements is a better player. This is his biggest quality. He can play different forms differently,' the batting coach added.
'He can change his game according to the conditions. He showed it on a wicket that was turning a lot. The way he defended against the left-arm spinner was a lesson for many youngsters.'
Kohli hasn't scored a century in an overseas Test for more than four years, with his last hundred away from home coming against Australia in Perth in December 2018. But Rathour believes it won't be long before Kohli gets past the three-figure mark in an away Test.
'Virat's good form continued for many years. He scored runs consistently for seven to eight years. The cricket logic says that the lean phase was about to come. When he lost momentum it went on for some time.
'Out of the five years, he didn't score a hundred approximately three of them went in Covid. The games took place in breakages or with restrictions. There is not much to look at because he is batting well,' Rathour added.
'The way he is playing he will score a century.'
