Sanjay Bangar drops a masterclass: The inside story of Virat Kohli's brutal morning training routine to conquer England
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- Sanjay Bangar reveals Virat Kohli's brutal pre-dawn training to master England's swing.
- India's coaching staff recreated English moisture conditions using early-morning dew.
- Kohli, Rohit Sharma return for the ODI series after India's disastrous T20I tour.
Inside Virat Kohli's brutal dawn drills that will hopefully crack the code in England
Sanjay Bangar has pulled back the curtain on the punishing preparation Virat Kohli underwent years ago to finally master English conditions, offering fresh insight into the discipline behind one of Indian cricket's great turnarounds.
India's current tour has spiralled into disappointment, starting with a 0-2 series sweep at the hands of Ireland in the T20Is, followed by a now-unassailable 0-3 deficit against England after a heavy nine-wicket defeat in Bristol on Thursday.
With the fifth and final T20I now reduced to a dead rubber, focus has already turned toward the upcoming three-match ODI series starting in Birmingham on Tuesday, where seasoned campaigners Kohli and Rohit Sharma are set to return, this time playing under Shubman Gill's captaincy.
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How did Virat Kohli train before the 2017-18 England tour?
Appearing on Doordarshan's The Great Indian Cricket Show, Bangar traced Kohli's journey back to his difficult 2014 tour of England, explaining that success in English conditions essentially hinges on two factors: how effectively a batter handles swing, and how late they can play the ball.
"When you go to England, the entire game comes down to two things: how well you counter the swing, and how late you can play the ball," Bangar said. "Because Virat Kohli did not have a great run during the 2014 tour, he put in an immense amount of work during 2017-18 to fix that."
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Bangar went on to describe just how far India's coaching staff went to replicate genuine English conditions back home.
Training sessions were deliberately scheduled at the crack of dawn, with the squad arriving at Mumbai grounds as early as 6 or 6:30 in the morning specifically to take advantage of natural dew, aiming to recreate the heavy morning air and dampness typically found on an uncovered English pitch.
"Our routine was brutal; we would hit a Mumbai ground by 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning just to chase the early dew. We wanted to start as early as possible so we could replicate English conditions, utilising the heavy morning atmosphere and the natural moisture on an uncovered pitch," he revealed.
When conditions didn't cooperate, particularly once the sun burned off the morning moisture, the coaching staff resorted to manually dousing the pitch with extra water to keep the ball moving through the air.
"If the sun came out and the moisture on the wicket started dropping, we would literally pour extra water onto the surface just to keep the ball snaking around," Bangar said.
Relentless repetition behind the results
Bangar emphasised that Kohli didn't just attempt these gruelling sessions once, but returned to them repeatedly in his pursuit of technical mastery against the swinging ball.
He credited this painstaking, repetitive simulation work as a key factor behind the improved performances of India's core batting group during subsequent tours of England.
"Virat did that gruelling practice repeatedly," he revealed. "Because three or four of our core batsmen managed to fine-tune their batting through those exact simulations, we were highly successful in winning matches over there."
Kohli, who had been training alongside Bangar in Mumbai before making his way to England for the ODI leg of the tour, is now expected to fire on all cylinders alongside Rohit Sharma as India looks for revenge following a largely forgettable T20I campaign.
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Virat Kohli's efforts portray him as a perfectionist
Bangar's account is a valuable reminder that mastering unfamiliar conditions isn't about talent alone; it's about deliberate, often unglamorous preparation.
Kohli's willingness to simulate English dampness through pre-dawn sessions and manually watered pitches shows a level of discipline that India's current young batting group seems to be lacking, at least based on results so far.
If the BCCI's upcoming review is serious about fixing India's overseas struggles, it should look beyond team selection and examine whether today's players are putting in the same painstaking, condition-specific preparation that once turned Kohli into a genuine master of English conditions.
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