Test Win That Ticks Many Boxes
"A win is a win and it won't take any sheen off the game," Ravichandran Ashwin said, when questioned about comments from former players on turning tracks. After the win against New Zealand at Gren Park in Kanpur, there wasn't a single question asked about the pitch to Virat Kohli. There was none warranted, as the scores revealed. This was a track that played well, lasted five days and got all aspects of the game into play. Expectedly though, it was spin that dominated proceedings but not so much in a manner that would be considered as an unfair advantage.
Ten wickets from Ashwin in the game and the all-round efforts of Ravindra Jadeja were clearly the catalysts, but as has been seen with this Indian team for a while now, there were smaller but valuable contributions from every member over the course of the match. Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara had twin fifties, Ajinkya Rahane scored a forty in the second innings, Rohit Sharma got a fifty as well, KL Rahul got off to starts, Mohammed Shami bowled a crucial spell on the fifth morning and Umesh Yadav picked up a wicket as well. It almost masked Kohli's batting failure. But, he would take this as a captain. All of the contributions have in various ways been shaped by his thoughts as a captain.
There are two thoughts that he's stuck to throughout this captaincy spell - having enough bowlers to win Tests and batting 'positively'. The latter, by his definition, also loosely translates to having better strike-rates. It is something that he asked of Pujara.
There might be a few calls that he's taken that can still be debated upon. Chief amongst those will be the call to drop the likes of Pujara and Vijay at various stages. Both of them have responded with fifties in this game. Kohli felt that the sixth batsman in this game (Rohit) helped his team score quick runs. But he was also quick to point out that Kolkata might be a different ball game. On a batting pitch he felt that having an extra bowler will help more.
"He (Pujara) is someone who absorbs the pressure really well but after a certain stage in the innings there comes a time when the team needs runs. That's where we felt that he has the ability to capitalise. It was just about conveying that to him. He has worked hard on his game. He scored at a good strike-rate in the duleep trophy. Even on this wicket he was scoring at 65, almost 70 strike-rate. Which for me was a revelation.
To see Pujara bat that way. Because he used to bat that way initially. Especially at home. If you see his double hundreds against England and Australia, he will dominate spinners. That's exactly what we wanted him to do. We didn't want him to go into a shell. We want Pujara to bat to his potential. Once he starts scoring runs to go with the composure he already has, it becomes very difficult for the opposition to have control of the game," he explained.
That reply came in a query specific to former chief selector Sandeep Patil's comments given to a news channel in which he said that Kohli, Kumble and the selectors had asked Pujara to maintain a higher strike-rate. To put that into context, the likes of Kohli, Rahane, Rohit and Dhawan have a Test strike-rate of over 50 while Pujara and Vijay are the only ones that fall below.
Now, there's enough reason for both to feel aggrieved when they are dropped. Particularly after making a string of good scores on difficult pitches. Pujara had one such in Sri Lanka while Vijay was invaluable in Tests overseas in England, South Africa and Australia. But the message that has gone out to Pujara seemed to have worked.
In India, a player improving his strike-rate isn't as hard as it would be to do overseas. This is a policy that has a lot of potential to backfire. Particularly on tracks that warrant runs to be grafted. India came close to facing such a situation in the first innings but the bowlers saved them from embarrassment. Kohli himself was victim of trying to score boundaries in both innings but it is a policy that he holds dear. With results to show for, he isn't pushed to think otherwise but there is another aspect attached to this thought.
As Kohli himself had told in one of his earlier interviews to Cricbuzz (http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/74407/virat-kohli-exclusive-india-cricket-team-captain-says-draw-is-the-last-option-for-team-india) when he was still young as a captain in Sri Lanka, he felt that his biggest challenge was man-management. In this team too, there are the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who have been dropped despite having reasonably strong cases to stay put in the eleven. But with every decision that he makes, Kohli seems to be backing himself a lot more. Even that can sometimes come back to bite you but with series wins each times he's captained so far, there's little to fall back on to point out his mistakes. Quite clearly there have been fewer of those as compared to right decisions. And it is likely that he faces more challenges in terms of man-management off the field than on it, when he has the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja operating.
He's been lucky to have a bowler like Ashwin performing in his prime. And Kohli's done enough just to keep that going without disturbance. When it comes to having Ashwin he says, "He's a very keen thinker of the game. He likes to talk cricket. He understands the game very well. Very smart cricketer, very intellient. That shows in his batting as well. He understands the situation and plays accordingly. He knows when to get runs and when to play the situation out accordingly. So it's priceless to have a cricketer like Ashwin in you Test team." But when asked specifically about handling them on the field, Kohli elaborated further.
"I like the fact that both of them, at times when they feel like we are trying too much as a team, both of them can come back to you and say that 'I'm trying to bowl to this one plan and let's see how that goes'. As a captain it always gives you more assurance that both these guys obviously know what they are doing and they are going to pitch the ball in the right areas. But at times when they are tired, when they are not able to think as clearly - everyone needs suggestions, everyone needs a chat every now and then. Same with batters, same with bowlers. It doesn't matter how good a skill you have or how much you've played, you still need that reassurance at times, especially during the game.
"Both of them are pretty open to hearing suggestions, but when they feel like they are very convinced about what they want to do, they tell you that. And I personally like that as a captain as well," he said.
Ashwin's at a stage where he thinks a lot on his own and he has the advantage of inputs of an experienced coach like Kumble. Jadeja too is unlike the bowler he was under Dhoni. He seems to understand his game much better and it is showing in the contributions that he is making to the Test team. Kohli is hard-nosed about his philosophies as a skipper.
"One thing we have spoken about is we want to play a certain brand of cricket," he chimed for the umpteenth time in a press conference. "Along those lines, personal performances will happen or won't happen. If they happen, yes you feel good about them, but the eventual target is to win games and win series. We want to be a high-quality team for a long time. It's just to get them rid of those pressures of individual performances. That I think is key. Once you take pressures of your own performance, things can flip very quickly. You will not be able to play the way the team wants you to play. And you will not be able to perform on a personal level as well. If you think about what the team wants, how the team wants you to play, you will end up doing special things for the team. Something I have experienced, these guys have experienced. That's something everyone believes in and has bought into."
When the logic is sound enough, there will be little arguments about how many times it is said and with results to back his thoughts, there are few who are questioning it. The win in the 500th Test thus, is one that has come out of sound thought and accurate execution. As a captain who is getting ready to lead his team in 12 more such Tests, there is nothing different that Kohli would want from his team.
There are two thoughts that he's stuck to throughout this captaincy spell - having enough bowlers to win Tests and batting 'positively'. The latter, by his definition, also loosely translates to having better strike-rates. It is something that he asked of Pujara.
There might be a few calls that he's taken that can still be debated upon. Chief amongst those will be the call to drop the likes of Pujara and Vijay at various stages. Both of them have responded with fifties in this game. Kohli felt that the sixth batsman in this game (Rohit) helped his team score quick runs. But he was also quick to point out that Kolkata might be a different ball game. On a batting pitch he felt that having an extra bowler will help more.
"He (Pujara) is someone who absorbs the pressure really well but after a certain stage in the innings there comes a time when the team needs runs. That's where we felt that he has the ability to capitalise. It was just about conveying that to him. He has worked hard on his game. He scored at a good strike-rate in the duleep trophy. Even on this wicket he was scoring at 65, almost 70 strike-rate. Which for me was a revelation.
To see Pujara bat that way. Because he used to bat that way initially. Especially at home. If you see his double hundreds against England and Australia, he will dominate spinners. That's exactly what we wanted him to do. We didn't want him to go into a shell. We want Pujara to bat to his potential. Once he starts scoring runs to go with the composure he already has, it becomes very difficult for the opposition to have control of the game," he explained.
That reply came in a query specific to former chief selector Sandeep Patil's comments given to a news channel in which he said that Kohli, Kumble and the selectors had asked Pujara to maintain a higher strike-rate. To put that into context, the likes of Kohli, Rahane, Rohit and Dhawan have a Test strike-rate of over 50 while Pujara and Vijay are the only ones that fall below.
Now, there's enough reason for both to feel aggrieved when they are dropped. Particularly after making a string of good scores on difficult pitches. Pujara had one such in Sri Lanka while Vijay was invaluable in Tests overseas in England, South Africa and Australia. But the message that has gone out to Pujara seemed to have worked.
In India, a player improving his strike-rate isn't as hard as it would be to do overseas. This is a policy that has a lot of potential to backfire. Particularly on tracks that warrant runs to be grafted. India came close to facing such a situation in the first innings but the bowlers saved them from embarrassment. Kohli himself was victim of trying to score boundaries in both innings but it is a policy that he holds dear. With results to show for, he isn't pushed to think otherwise but there is another aspect attached to this thought.
As Kohli himself had told in one of his earlier interviews to Cricbuzz (http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/74407/virat-kohli-exclusive-india-cricket-team-captain-says-draw-is-the-last-option-for-team-india) when he was still young as a captain in Sri Lanka, he felt that his biggest challenge was man-management. In this team too, there are the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who have been dropped despite having reasonably strong cases to stay put in the eleven. But with every decision that he makes, Kohli seems to be backing himself a lot more. Even that can sometimes come back to bite you but with series wins each times he's captained so far, there's little to fall back on to point out his mistakes. Quite clearly there have been fewer of those as compared to right decisions. And it is likely that he faces more challenges in terms of man-management off the field than on it, when he has the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja operating.
He's been lucky to have a bowler like Ashwin performing in his prime. And Kohli's done enough just to keep that going without disturbance. When it comes to having Ashwin he says, "He's a very keen thinker of the game. He likes to talk cricket. He understands the game very well. Very smart cricketer, very intellient. That shows in his batting as well. He understands the situation and plays accordingly. He knows when to get runs and when to play the situation out accordingly. So it's priceless to have a cricketer like Ashwin in you Test team." But when asked specifically about handling them on the field, Kohli elaborated further.
"I like the fact that both of them, at times when they feel like we are trying too much as a team, both of them can come back to you and say that 'I'm trying to bowl to this one plan and let's see how that goes'. As a captain it always gives you more assurance that both these guys obviously know what they are doing and they are going to pitch the ball in the right areas. But at times when they are tired, when they are not able to think as clearly - everyone needs suggestions, everyone needs a chat every now and then. Same with batters, same with bowlers. It doesn't matter how good a skill you have or how much you've played, you still need that reassurance at times, especially during the game.
"Both of them are pretty open to hearing suggestions, but when they feel like they are very convinced about what they want to do, they tell you that. And I personally like that as a captain as well," he said.
Ashwin's at a stage where he thinks a lot on his own and he has the advantage of inputs of an experienced coach like Kumble. Jadeja too is unlike the bowler he was under Dhoni. He seems to understand his game much better and it is showing in the contributions that he is making to the Test team. Kohli is hard-nosed about his philosophies as a skipper.
"One thing we have spoken about is we want to play a certain brand of cricket," he chimed for the umpteenth time in a press conference. "Along those lines, personal performances will happen or won't happen. If they happen, yes you feel good about them, but the eventual target is to win games and win series. We want to be a high-quality team for a long time. It's just to get them rid of those pressures of individual performances. That I think is key. Once you take pressures of your own performance, things can flip very quickly. You will not be able to play the way the team wants you to play. And you will not be able to perform on a personal level as well. If you think about what the team wants, how the team wants you to play, you will end up doing special things for the team. Something I have experienced, these guys have experienced. That's something everyone believes in and has bought into."
When the logic is sound enough, there will be little arguments about how many times it is said and with results to back his thoughts, there are few who are questioning it. The win in the 500th Test thus, is one that has come out of sound thought and accurate execution. As a captain who is getting ready to lead his team in 12 more such Tests, there is nothing different that Kohli would want from his team.
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