India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour agreed that Virat Kohli showed a lot more discipline in his batting on Day I of the third and final Test in Cape Town that helped him register his highest score in his 26 innings in the longest format.

“Well, there was never any concern with how Virat was batting. He was always bating well. As a batting coach, I was never concerned about his batting. He was looking very good at nets and also getting starts in the games.

“One good change today (Tuesday) was that he was more disciplined, which made him look really good and solid. With a bit more luck, he could have converted it into a big one,” Rathour said later.

In what was his slowest Test half-century, coming off 158 balls, Kohli left as many as 89 deliveries en route to his quality knock of 79. Such patience and discipline must have impressed India’s head coach Rahul Dravid, who turned 49 on Tuesday.

“It really depends how the opposition bowlers are bowling,” Rathour said while commenting on the India captain leaving so many balls, which hasn’t really been witnessed in the past.

“South Africa bowlers were bowling very well initially to him. So as I said, he was very disciplined and he had to bat like that. He didn’t get any balls to play his natural game.

“So that’s how he responded and he was really looking good till the ball that got him out,” Rathour added.

Talking about the conversations he had with Kohli, especially after the skipper perished by edging outside the off-stump on several occasions before this innings, Rathour said they were all about being selective and picking the right balls to play strokes.

“It’s (poking outside the off-stump) not a conscious thing. It was just a lapse in concentration for a fraction of second (in the first innings in Centurion), I thought, when he played that wide delivery trying for a cover drive.

“He played some cover drives on this occasion and looked solid and picked the right balls. That’s what the conversations were about, being selective in terms of his shot-making,” Rathour explained.

Talking about whether Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara had made any technical changes to their games, Rathour said: “A little bit of adjustments here and there.”