India’s juggernaut under Virat Kohli continued as the world number one Test side registered its eighth consecutive series win by defeating Sri Lanka in the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo on Sunday (August 6). Barring a brief resistance by centurions Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis, India dominated the match right from the start and won the match by a big margin of an innings and 53 runs.
Speaking at the post-match conference, captain Kohli expressed his delight over leading the team to yet another series win but did not refrain from pointing out the mistakes that took place during the match like the slip-catching. He also heaped lavish praise on Ravindra Jadeja, who not only scored a half-century in the first innings but took a 5-wicket haul in the second innings, and Cheteshwar Pujara.
Excerpts:
On whether the pitch was getting slower:
Yes, it was getting slower and that’s why we took the new ball straight away as well. We thought with the harder new ball, one might keep straight as well because the older ball was soft and all balls were turning so it was very difficult to get edges and create chances. As soon as the new ball was taken, then we thought the batsmen are going to look to score now. The ball might come better on to the bat and then they might play more shots. The bowlers are in the game as well when there is more pace because of the harder ball. Ashwin was spot on yesterday, it was getting difficult at the later stage of the day. Today again, we spoke about getting those couple of chances and then we can get 4-5 [wickets] in a session which ended up happening in the second session. First session again was hard work but we spoke of a little bit of discipline, knowing that they would come out and play only one way because it was very difficult to defend on this pitch. So yeah, the bowlers did an outstanding job today of pulling things back and keeping it simple. And that’s what happens in Test cricket, sessions go away from you and you have to pull it back to win a Test match. I think it was very good for us from a team’s point of view. We were up against a challenge in the last four sessions that we played yesterday and today. We managed to turn things around and you always feel good as a team when you come back from a difficult situation and win the Test match.
On the slip-catching woes:
Yeah, that is certainly an area that we want to keep improving in. I would say that on a pitch like that where it is getting slower, sometimes you end up standing ahead because you want to pick up catches from the front. And then when one big shot is played and the ball is bowled quick, then you suddenly look like you are not in position. It is a very tricky thing to figure out. Maybe we will have to figure out a certain distance that we just stay in, no matter if the ball falls in front of us or something like that. Specialists are always nice. KL [Rahul] and Pujara are our close-in specialists. Pujara does gully for spinners as well but then he takes on short-leg and KL hasn’t done as much of that practice as Pujara does. So it becomes tricky. I try to chip in but when I drop catches, it looks bad. We will have to figure out who stands in those positions consistently and keep those guys there for longer periods. I think that is the solution going forward.
On whether it was tough to maintain after enforcing the follow-on:
As I mentioned in the presentation, you expect teams playing Test cricket to come out and play like that, you know with the ball and with the bat as well. Because of the way we got wickets in the first innings, sometimes frustration can creep in when we don’t get wickets in a session. But you have to realize that those eight wickets we would have probably liked to get them throughout the day. If you spread it into three sessions, so it was all about keeping things realistic. Saying that, we only wanted to keep things tight in the first session and see where the game goes, we ended up getting eight. So, no point having expectations on those same lines and getting frustrated if you don’t get wickets.
Then you have to give credit to the batsmen as well, to play like that on a pitch like that, it was high quality batting and you expect that to happen at the Test level and we spoke as a team that we have to embrace this because all sessions that we play are not going to go our way. So if we make our expectations on those lines then we will get frustrated and we will be disappointed, so just be realistic and keep working hard, keep hitting the areas, keep doing the skills you know best and just wait for something to happen. With our discipline, we can put some more pressure again. So it was just about keeping things to be honest and not going too far ahead of ourselves.
On whether he is excited by the prospect of whitewash:
Well, it’s obviously nice to win this series again. We won this last time also, in 2015. Yes, we do have that chance [of a whitewash], but honestly speaking, we are not looking at Test matches or Test cricket now as home and away anymore. We are just looking at Test matches as Test matches and we want to win anywhere that we play. If we can believe enough in our abilities then we are not really bothered about where we are playing. That kind of energy I can sense in the team, and the team believes that as well. You know, we have to only look to win Test matches, however, it may be, on whatever pitch and in whatever conditions.
We are creating a habit of winning that I think can be carried on in future as well. So yes, from the numbers point of view and from stats point of view, these things look great. But for us as a team, it’s all about achieving those small little goals everytime we go out to play a Test match. For us, this is priority. Test cricket is the most important thing for us. And everyone plays with a lot of passion. If you see the last nine Test matches, six times we’ve got 600 runs. That shows the hunger of the batsmen. They are waiting for an opportunity, there are lower-order contributions as well. All these things are… they feel great as a team. In the dressing room, we feel really proud of each others efforts, that we’re really putting in those consistent, convincing performances, and winning Test matches more often than getting the other results. We really feel good as a team that we’re able to win consistently right now, but we realise that it’s very important to keep carrying on the same way as well.
On Ravindra Jadeja:
Yeah, guys who have both abilities are very rare to find. That’s where we think they’re very precious, specially in the longer format because they provide you with great balance. He can give you a very quick 60-70 anywhere at any stage of the game, it can really turn the game. Remember Lord’s, remember Dharamsala against Australia, those are very important innings, the 90 against England in Mohali. So it’s not just when the batters are doing well, his runs have come under pressure. Also, he has the ability, he believes in it and he’s worked extra hard in the last 10-12 months on his batting. He’s bowled so much that the other discipline was left behind, but now he’s catching up in that as well. It’s only going to do good to him. If he doesn’t bowl well on a particular day, he can score runs. Once he scores runs, then he gets confidence with the ball also. He’s always in the game, his fielding as well. I would say he’s a very valuable cricketer for us.
On Cheteshwar Pujara:
I say this regularly. He and Ajinkya [Rahane] are our two best Test batsmen, especially in the middle order. They’ve been doing so well consistently. Pujara, I would give him more credit because he only plays one format for India. And to be able to have that hunger and passion day in day out, working hard on his game, coming out and having those consistent performances takes a lot of mental strength. And he’s a guy with a lot of mental strength. He obviously has the game. He knows how to score runs, which is the most important thing. He has evolved massively as a batter since then. All of us have, but Pujara’s game has gone to another level. If you see last season, continuing now, he’s got about 1500 runs which is outstanding. All credit goes to how hard he’s works on the game, and how he thinks about his game as well. He scores runs in all conditions that we play, I think that for us is the most important.