Kohli Encounters First Failure As Captain…
It’s often said “A captain is just as good as his team” and the hosts merely attested the cliche in the very first test of the series. Though ‘Captain Kohli’ has, with his sheer distinction and eminence, changed the fortunes of many a games on their head in his short stint, this one came as a shocker to him as well. One would have never ever imagined India succumbing to the conditions that has fostered them to come up through the ranks and get to the top but the visitors had some different plans altogether. Australia has just impeded India’s rhythm and it’s back to the drawing board for the home team.
Pune, hosting its first ever Test match, lived upto its repute and played fairly low and slow. The wicket was distinctly abrasive right from the first ball and a rank-turner was no revelation for either of the two teams. India managed to strike regularly; nonetheless, Australia got to a decent total in the first innings with some sizable contributions from the lower order. The drama began with ‘Indian batting collapse’, a phrase unheard of recently. The hosts fared worse from there on and Smith’s ton was the final nail in the coffin. It was a mere formality for the Australian bowlers and they got about their job in just 34 overs, thanks to O’Keefe’s 12-fer.
India’s batting was marked with inadequate application and that costed them the game more than anything else. Of late, Indian batting has just gone from strength-to-strength with solidarity holding the key but the last game tells a different story. On a wicket where the ball was turning square, both Smith and Renshaw mostly played inside the line of the ball and dabbed with soft hands, managing to negate the turn and to obviate any outside edge from carrying to the fielders to good effect. Indian batting was bereft of one domineering effort to capitalise on the start so that others lined up could also build their innings around that. It was the scoreboard pressure that got the better of Indian batsmen in the second innings.
Australia made good use of the conditions, credit goes to their spinners who shared 17 wickets among themselves with a coherent quantum of work load. They discerned rather quickly as to what was a good line and length to bowl against a particular batsman, how much turn can be extracted, how to exploit the rough outside off and stuck to the plans rather than trying anything new. The way they got the ball to drift by imparting more revs regardless of the wind was worth admiration. They were well prepared for the Indian challenges with specific plans against every batsman and were upto the mark when it came to execution.
Indian spinners too did equally well but it was one of those games where they had little luck going their way. Jadeja, in particular, missed the outside edge by whiskers on numerous occasions and the sloppy fielding added to the annoyance. Ashwin too bowled his heart out for his team but couldn’t strike gold. All in all, it was a par performance from the Indian bowlers but this anomaly in the batting needs to be addressed before getting into the next game. Indian batsmen have shown daunting character in the past and that is what they need to turn up with in Bengaluru.
It’s unreasonable to be overcritical of India’s performance just after one game. They are a quality side and know how to get about their jobs. Hopefully, India will take this game as an aberration in their winning streak at home and will come back strongly against the opposition to level the series!
