The way England team started their second innings in pursuit of India’s huge target of 405, it was very much clear that the visitors had a draw on their minds. But batting around one and a half day on a pitch that was offering variable bounce, it was always going to be a tough task. Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed presented a dead bat to almost every ball and added only 75 runs in 50.2 overs. Indian captain Virat Kohli revealed England’s ‘lack of intent’ with the bat gave his side the confidence that winning the match was just a matter of time.
Well, the Indian captain’s prediction was spot on as the visitors, who finished the second day on 87 for 2, were dismissed for only 158 runs, handing hosts a huge victory of 246 runs and a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Speaking to media after the end of the match, Kohli said: “Not giving away at more than 1.5 per over, we thought they would come out with more intent, to be honest. And to see the approach that they had obviously given us assurance that once we get a couple of wickets, it will crumble pretty quickly because there wasn’t much intent from the batsmen.”
“It is a pretty basic thing to do, to be honest, and if you don’t have intent in the fourth innings, it is tough to play out four and a half sessions,” he added.
On a pitch where the other batsmen were finding it tough even to time the ball, the Delhi batsman was looking at his fluent best as he aggregated 248 runs from two innings with scores of 167 and 81.
When asked about his brilliant batting, he said:”It is only if you have the intent that you will be able to play the ball accordingly because you are looking to play it with the bat. If you don’t have intent, and you are looking to control the ball, and if it does something, then you are in no position to control it, the edges fly off.”
“If you are looking for runs, you defend well because your head is on the ball as well. So that was the idea, to get runs as the pitch gets tougher to bat on, show intent and keep getting runs in between, extend the lead so the opposition feels the heat of those 30-40 runs.” he added.
In a revealing insight on his batting approach, Kohli said the batsman should play according to the situation and try to spend as much time as possible on the pitch.
Kohli said:““See what’s happening, understand the bowlers, not necessarily have your plans of attacking bowlers but to understand how the situation is playing out. Stay calm on the wicket, try to spend as much time on the wicket. Instinctive players obviously get runs when they spend time on the wicket.”
“I think I am one of them, so I like to go out there and play a session or two sessions that’s my target. I never think of runs. as a goal. Obviously, I want to score but I don’t think of these many runs in a session or something like that. So spending time is something that I aim for in Test cricket.”
The right-handed batsman also said getting a big score in the first innings is always important. The Indian team, after scoring 455 in their first innings, took a huge lead of 200 by dismissing the visitors for only 255.
“I think first innings is quite important, because afterwards it gets difficult. So at the start, if you can get 100-150 runs extra, then you get advantage of that in the second innings for sure,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Indian captain, who was a part of the Indian team that lost to England in the last home Test series, insisted the hosts will not Alastair Cook’s men lightly in the remaining matches. The visitors lost the first Test in Ahmedabad by nine wickets to bounce back from being 0-1 down to win 2-1 in the 2012 series.
“England are a side we do not take for granted. We understand that they have quality players, who have played a lot of cricket, their captain has over 100 Tests so have other couple players, so you expect them to show that resilience and character and fight. It is a learning process for us as well to be patient and to fight,” Kohli said.
“We know the ability that they have but we are not thinking about the past. We are not the side which thinks what happened the last time they came or the last time we went there. You are already not in the game as soon as you start thinking like that,” he concluded.
The third match of the series will start from November 26 in Mohali.