India vs New Zealand, 2nd Test: Wankhede Stadium, a happy hunting ground for Virat Kohli | Cricket News – Times of India

Virat has enjoyed a prolific run at this Mumbai venue
MUMBAI: The last time Virat Kohli donned the whites at Wankhede, he scored 235 against England in 2016.
It wasn’t a snooze-fest by any means. It was a match-winning effort that came in the company of No. 9 Jayant Jadav, who incidentally has made a comeback to the Test squad after falling out of favour.
Kohli and Yadav stitched a record 241-run stand for the ninth wicket that steam-rolled Alastair Cook’s side.
The year 2016 was great for the modern master as he had piled over 2500 runs across all formats at an eye-popping average of 89. Seven hundreds and 13 half-hundreds, Kohli was at the peak of his powers and looked invincible as his career graph hit the roof.

Looking fresh after a well-deserved break, Kohli will probably try and visualize that golden phase of his career in a bid to end a lengthy dry spell with the bat.
His last three-figure score came a couple of years ago against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens.
“I really enjoy playing at Wankhede. It’s a ground I always have happy memories of. The kind of innings you play that has an impact on the team matters more,” Kohli said in his online media briefing.
Heading into the second and final Test against New Zealand, Kohli looked to get into the groove with a four-day stint in the nets at CCI under the watchful eyes of Sanjay Bangar – a man whose time as batting coach of Indian team coincided with his phenomenal rise.
“It was just to stay in the rhythm of playing red-ball cricket. The idea was to get repetition and volume which is important in Test cricket, so it is just about getting into the mould of switching between formats. This is something I have always tried to do. Whenever I get the opportunity to work on setting up for different formats, it is more so mentally than anything related to technique,” explained Kohli.
The India captain, as is his wont, loves to be challenged and the strip at Wankhede has got him all excited.
“This is a pitch which demands a lot of discipline, but at the same time, the rewards of the discipline are also much higher in the percentage as compared to some of the other venues, where spin might be a dominant factor and fast bowlers don’t come into play. But at the Wankhede, that has never been the case. All the fast bowlers, especially in red ball cricket, really enjoy playing on this pitch and even the batsmen love batting here.
“It is a great wicket for good cricket and all skillsets are in play all the time, which is a great position to be in because then you know you can utilize your resources very well,” he said.