Former head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Simon Katich, praised the captaincy skills of Virat Kohli as well as his training regime.
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Former head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Simon Katich, praised the captaincy skills of Virat Kohli as well as his training regime. Katich revealed what he saw during his stint as coach of RCB during IPL 2020 and 2021. His comments came as Kohli has recently stepped down from India’s Test captaincy.
Katich shared his views while speaking to former Australia player Brad Hogg on the latter’s YouTube channel. He praised the way Kohli, the captain, worked with his players. Katich also shared how Kohli was very giving of his time to the players as well as the support staff too.
He said: “It’s a big role captaining an IPL franchise or an international teams since it’s constant meetings, there’s constant decisions that have to be made … It was time consuming and that’s something he was very good with in terms of giving us his time.”
He continued: “We were really mindful of that and respectful of trying to take the load off him in that respect so as a coaching group we tried to do a lot of the ground work with that and then go to him with a simplified version of how we wanted to go about things, whether it was the game style or whether it was the tactics or selections. So you try to help him out as much as possible given the workload he’s on but…he was very giving of his time.”
Howveer, Katich again shared how Virat Kohli did an amazing job in terms of grooming young batsman Devdutt Padikkal. Padikkal, too, was thrilled to be paired up with Kohli as well, as per Katich.
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Katich continued: “We also asked him to mentor one of our younger players and I think he did a magnificent job in what he did with young Padikkal. He’s come on in leaps and bounds over the last two years… Just being able to pass on that experience of what he’s learnt over the last decade of IPL…onto a young player that’s finding his feet at that level but also potentially going to be an international player down the track.”
He further added: “I know the youngster was thrilled to be able to be paired up with him…We witnessed it and I’ve got a huge amount of respect for the way he (Kohli) went about things and gave his time to our group.”
Simon Katich also opened up on Virat Kohli’s training standards in times when cricketers had to stay into bio-bubbles only due to COVID-19. He also admitted that Kohli has taken fitness standards to a whole new level and that he pushes himself to the maximum level as well.
Simon again shared: “He pushes himself to the maximum. It’s unbelievable. We played in an era where some of the boys were renown for being religious trainers…Virat’s taken it to a whole new level – particularly the work he’s done in the gym… It doesn’t look like he cuts any corners whatsoever. There’s no stone unturned with his physical preparation.”
He also opened up about Virat Kohli’s mental fitness and said: “But I think he also spends time on the mental side of things. He had his wife Anushka there and they obviously spend a lot of time together. That was fantastic to see that him in particular spent time with her given how busy he is throughout the year with the Indian job.”
Katich again shared that the coaching staff at RCB tried to encourage Virat Kohli to take days off and keep himself fresh. Katich also revealed that he was quite impressed with the way Kohli lives up to his commitments on and off the field.
He stated: “We tried to encourage him to have days off because he has got so much on his plate playing all formats of the game. In the IPL, he’s a very experienced player. He knows how to make those runs. If anything, we were trying to encourage him to freshen up when he needed to come into games 100 per cent… He has a huge amount on his plate and not just on the field with RCB – they ask a lot of him off the field with commercial engagements…He does it all as part of his job…I was unbelievably impressed with how he went about it.”
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However, Simon Katich also expressed how fortunate the support staff at RCB were as they got a leader like Virat Kohli. Katich also shared how he supported the coaching staff in their decision-making around it while staying at bio-bubble.
“We were fortunate having a leader like Virat Kohli whose training standards are second to none in terms of his level of professionalism. But also his understanding – he was extremely understanding given his role as Indian captain and then knowing how difficult it is being on the road for nearly 12 months of the year. So he really supported that and we were lucky as a support staff to have a leader like that that basically backed our decision making in around bio bubbles and how we wanted to treat the players,” said Simon Katich.
However, Simon Katich stepped down from the Head Coach post of RCB ahead of the second leg of IPL 2021 due to personal reasons. On the other hand, RCB retained Virat Kohli prior to the IPL 2022 Auction. Kohli stepped down from his post as captain, though, he will only continue as a batsman.
