Modern cricket coaches walk on eggshells around superstar batters. Ryan ten Doeschate refused to be one of them.
During India's grueling tour of Australia, a familiar and agonizing pattern consumed Virat Kohli. Innings after innings, the talisman nicked off while chasing deliveries wide outside off-stump. Outside the dressing room, critics clamored. Inside it, coaches hesitated. Confronting an icon over a glaring mechanical flaw carried genuine career peril in an era dominated by superstar player power. Yet as the series dragged into its penultimate leg, Ten Doeschate chose confrontation over silence.
Speaking in an in-depth cricket interview, the former Netherlands all-rounder and ex-India assistant coach detailed how he deliberately engineered a private intervention during a rain stoppage in the fourth Test. He had watched Kohli fall into the exact same trap too many times. The dismissal was identical, nagging, and dangerous. But timing was everything. Dropping technical critiques on a batter minutes before he walks out to face Mitchell Starc can poison footwork and shatter clarity.
"There's always a risk that you sort of unsettle his frame of mind," Ten Doeschate explained. "He's obviously not someone who needs a lot of coaching, and that was one thing that really stuck out—the manner of the dismissal being so same-same."
So the coach waited for the skies to open. When the rain stopped play, Ten Doeschate pulled Kohli aside. The stakes were immediate. If delivered poorly, the conversation could look like unprompted interference or an insecure coach desperately trying to justify his payroll. Instead, Kohli surprised him. The senior batter leaned into the critique. He actually wanted the feedback. Rather than a one-way technical dressing down, the discussion turned into an honest dissection of risk versus reward. Kohli laid out precisely why he backed himself to drive on the up, allowing the coaching staff to recommend small technical tweaks rather than forcing him to discard his attacking instincts.
Ten Doeschate pulled no punches regarding the systemic fear gripping international support staffs. As power swung decisively toward marquee players over the past decade, intervening when a heavyweight struggles has turned into a calculated risk that many backroom staffers actively dodge.
"I think a lot of coaches are afraid to make interventions because it can be seen that you are trying to justify your job, or you're interfering," Ten Doeschate said. "The way the power shift has moved towards the players in the modern era does mean that a lot of coaches are scared to bring up topics or at least get talking about it."
Coaching, as Ten Doeschate framed it, cannot be an act of self-preservation. By bridging the gap between backroom technical observation and on-field execution under Australian fire, India’s support staff found a way to recalibrate their premier run-scorer when the stakes were highest.