'A lot of coaches are afraid': Ryan ten Doeschate opens up on 'calling out' Virat Kohli during India star's struggles in Australia

'A lot of coaches are afraid': Ryan ten Doeschate opens up on 'calling out' Virat Kohli during India star's struggles in Australia originally appeared on Cricket News . Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . KEY TAKEAWAYS: Former India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate says he intervened with Virat Kohli during the fourth Test of the 2024-25 series in Australia . He waited for a rain break to raise it and spent time working out how to deliver it. Kohli was caught behind or in the slips in eight of his nine dismissals on that tour. Ryan ten Doeschate reveals the courage it took to confront Virat Kohli For someone of his calibre, Virat Kohli's last few years in Test cricket were very different from his peak. His struggles on the fifth-stump line, his regression against spin and his inability to hit boundaries continued to trouble him throughout the New Zealand and Australia tours. His problem in Australia in 2024-25 was especially visible to everyone watching, which is precisely what made it difficult for those paid to fix it. Ryan ten Doeschate, India's assistant coach on that tour, has described how long he sat on it before saying anything. "I actually was just telling a really great story about Virat and his troubles he had in Australia with driving the ball and nicking off," Ten Doeschate said in a recent interview on talkSPORT . "Eventually in the fourth Test I went to intervene and chat to him, and he was brilliant about it, and he actually wanted someone to chat to him." The hesitation was not about whether Kohli needed telling. It was about what approaching a player of that standing does to the coach who tries it. "My sense is for a coach to go to a player like Virat Kohli and intervene and almost call them out on what's happening can be dangerous for you as a coach, and I think getting the wording right around that and how you deliver it is so important." What he settled on was a moment rather than a speech. "It had been bubbling away, and it was more a case of me building up the courage and delivering it in the right way. The time just felt right, so I thought about it a lot, and I thought about how I could deliver it." He was clear about what he would not say. "I'm not going to go to him and say, 'Mate, your cover drives are all over the show.' But then I worked out a time; it was during a rain break where I could deliver it in quite a non-confrontational way. "And credit to him for the way he took it on, and it ended up being a really great discussion." MORE: IPL 2027 trade tracker: Complete list of all player and cash deals before the IPL 2027 mini-auction Ten Doeschate reveals: Why coaches may be reluctant to confront star cricketers Ten Doeschate broadened the point beyond Kohli, arguing that the shift in power towards players has made coaches reluctant to raise anything uncomfortable. "I think a lot of coaches are afraid to make interventions because it can be seen that you are being, you know, trying to justify your job, or you're interfering or just saying things for the sake of saying it," he said. He acknowledged the risk runs both ways, since a badly judged intervention can leave a batter worse off than silence would. "You've got to strike the balance of making an intervention that's going to help the player or confusing them." "I never want to be a coach who's scared of an opinion of someone else for stepping in, for saying the right thing," he said, before adding that the modern game pushes the other way. "The way the power shift has moved towards the players in the modern era, it does mean that a lot of coaches are scared to bring up topics or at least get talking about it." MORE: Major ball-tampering incidents in cricket history listed: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid to 'Sandpaper Gate' What Kohli's 2024-25 BGT tour of Australia actually looked like The pattern ten Doeschate describes as bubbling away was among the most documented technical problems of recent Test cricket. Kohli made 190 runs in nine innings at 23.75, with an unbeaten 100 in the second innings at Perth and nothing above 36 after it. Eight of his nine dismissals came the same way: caught behind or in the cordon, driving at deliveries on the fifth or sixth stump. Sunil Gavaskar called it a technical fault rather than a temperament one, pointing to how front-footed Kohli had become, while Irfan Pathan framed it as a failure of discipline against a plan every bowler in the world knew about. Melbourne, where the intervention happened, contained both versions of the problem. Kohli made 36 from 88 balls in the first innings, leaving well for long stretches, and added 102 with Yashasvi Jaiswal before nicking Scott Boland to Alex Carey shortly after Jaiswal was run out. In the second innings, he lasted 29 balls for five, flashing at Mitchell Starc to Usman Khawaja at first slip with India 33 for 3, and they lost by 184 runs. The conversation did not change the outcome. Kohli made 17 and 6 at Sydney in the final Test, with India losing the series 3-1, and he retired from Test cricket four months later. aFor all the latest cricket news, opinion, and commentary, and to share your voice, head to our Facebook , Instagram , and X (Twitter) pages.