The Courage of Winners.
I want to tell you a story of two great players who walked across the field of cricket. Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli are both great masters of cricket and contributed to their country whenever required.
Now, at one stage of their careers, both of them were struggling with a similar weakness — outside the off stump balls. Outside the off Stump balls. Both were getting out scoring runs in the cover regions innings after innings.
The point I want to express here is how both these batsmen tackled this situation.
It was 2004, Australia vs India at the great SCG. The series was 1–1 level, and even a draw for India was equal to victory over the mighty Australians. Prior to this match, Sachin got out a few times and was struggling with the cover drive. On a tour where more than 1000 runs were scored in every single match, the master blaster managed to get 0, 1, 37, 0, 44.
Now, as the series was on the line, and the thing about Australians is that they never let you settle down. Absolutely no freebies. Sachin had different plans that day as he decided not to score in the cover regions. He opened the innings for India and scored a magnificent 241* (436). That was the statement from the master that I don’t need to play a normal book shot to score a mountain of runs. He batted for 613 minutes against the Aussies.
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Now, it’s interesting to think that if he had got out on that day, everyone in the world would have been blaming him for not backing his strength and not playing the cover drive was a stupid decision. I tell you, everyone knows how to play the game at the best until they are on the 22-yard pitch. But Sachin made it look like so easy, and he proved one thing that sometimes you can succeed by not doing the things which are normal.
He accepted that whatever it was, it wasn’t working right then, and let’s move on from it.
Now, we go ahead almost 15–17 years when the whole of India wants to see just one man play — Virat Kohli..He is the greatest batsman India has ever produced after Sachin, arguably..Virat faced a similar issue getting out on playing the cover drive..The shot any batsman practices 1000s of hours and plays it since he started playing cricket.
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Again, we are no one to question Virat and Sachin as their runs speak for their experience and skillset..But something was wrong, and Virat was not able to get it right.. Virat being the great fearless Captain of Modern day cricket decided to Continue playing in the cover region , I mean why not he the great Virat Kohli most Centurion after Sachin and higest run scorer in all format for India for a long period of time.
Virat kept getting out playing the cover driver in Australia, in England, and so on..It was like everyone knew about the cheat code to get this giant back in the pavilion.
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Virat failed with his way and could not make a dramatic comeback like Sachin did a decade and over ago.
It’s funny how when a man who played so much cricket for India suddenly everyone wants him to step down..As I said earlier, “Everyone knows how to play a game till they are in the battlefield.”
If Virat would have been successful , everyone would be applauding him that he backed his strength and form is temporary class is permanent kind of shitt.
Anyone can fail or succeed with their approach of fighting a situation, but it’s essential to do what you think is right..Because at the end, it’s only you who know what is right, and other things are just noise..
