'Keep it simple': Ex-India coach offers unheralded Sachin Tendulkar advice to Virat Kohli

The upcoming ODI World Cup 2023, whichb will  be held in India in the month of October will be a special moment for the fans. The prestigious tournament has returned to India after a gap of 12 years, and the 'Men in Blue' will aim to repeat their 2011 heroics. The Indian Cricket Team will play its first match of the tournament against Australia on October 8, 2023, at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. 

3 things you need to know 

• Team India has never won an ICC event since the 2013 Champions Trophy under MS Dhoni's leadership
• The Indian team recently lost to Australia in the final of the ICC WTC 2023 Final
• This was Team India's eighth loss in any ICC knockout match in the last ten years

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Greg Chappell's 'Sachin Tendulkar' advice for Virat Kohli 

Former Indian cricket team head coach Greg Chappell has come up with a 'Sachin Tendulkar' type suggestion for the Indian cricket team batsman Virat Kohli. ICC events have a special place in Kohli's heart, as he has helped win the Indian team in many matches from an unwinnable situation in the tournament. The most recent incident was in the IND vs PAK T20 World Cup 2022 match, wherein the Indian team was 31/4 at one stage while chasing 160 runs and still needed 129 runs to win off the last 14 overs. 

(Virat Kohli gets lauded by the Indian players after win against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2022 match / Image: AP)

The Indian team needed a partnership, and it was Virat Kohli who first added 113 runs off 78 balls for the fifth wicket and hit 16 runs off the last over against Pakistani bowler Mohammed Nawaz. Kohli steered Team India's win by four wickets. 

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While talking to RevSportz in an interview, Greg Chappell shared a never heard incident of Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar. Chappell who served as the head coach for the Indian cricket team said: 

He is a champion player and the big matches will be the ones he will be aiming for. He wants to perform well in every tournament he plays. It was interesting...soon after I started coaching for India, I was in my room in the hotel when the phone rang and it was Sachin. He asked whether he can come and talk to me. He then came down and the question he asked was, 'Why does batting get more difficult? It should surely get easier'. I said, ‘Not really. 

When you are younger and you are playing the game, you see the ball and hit the ball. You only think about scoring runs then and not anything else. As one gets older, the oppositions tends to know more about the player and then they know how to bowl better and what fields to set. Then you also realise how hard it is to perform at that level constantly and how much mental hard work it requires to score each run. Hence, to score like you were young, you have to think like how you were young. And that means getting rid of some of these extraneous information, keep it simple and focus on the basic things.

Why is the ODI World Cup 2023 special for Virat Kohli? 

Though Virat Kohli won the ODI World Cup 2011 as a player, the tournament was more special for Sachin Tendulkar, as the batting great bid adieu to his international career two years after the tournament. After 12 years, Virat is in the same position as it might be his last ODI World Cup. The former Indian skipper will be eager to win the trophy and also end the team's ten-year drought of not winning an ICC title.