This was three days before the Dharamsala Test against Australia. There was uncertainty surrounding Virat Kohli’s participation in the series decider and the team had flown in on a chartered plane only a couple of hours earlier from Ranchi.
Kohli and Anil Kumble arrived together at the stadium, took a look at the pitch and had a discussion for at least half-an-hour standing next to the square. A few smiles here and there, and even a high-five were visible. Back then, it was hard to even imagine that their relationship would have such a huge breakdown, that it was going to be the last Test with them together.
But the lead-up to the Test did see a few things emerging, which at that time looked very much an aberration and of little importance in the larger scheme of things. Until the first morning of the Test, there was no clarity on the playing XI, although the XII had been finalised late in the previous evening. Kohli’s participation, barring a miracle, looked next to impossible, but for whatever reasons, the skipper seemed to have been holding onto some glimmer of hope that he would be ready on the morning of the Test. Those part of the team management talk about how much the delay in finalising an XI frustrated Kumble then. On the eve of the match, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane too was brought in as part of the think-tank and this was where things seemed to have gone wrong between the captain and coach.
Kumble, it is understood, wanted to play Kuldeep Yadav—which eventually happened—but it was not what Kohli preferred. The skipper thought playing Shreyas Iyer, who had flown in only a day ahead of the Test as cover for him, would give India the edge, strengthening the batting line-up, which was looking fragile for the first time in the entire season. With stand-in skipper Rahane too supporting Kumble and opting for the chinaman, there seems to have been a heated argument. Kumble preferred Kuldeep because having been part of the set-up for a while, he was better placed to make his debut than Shreyas, who had hardly spent any time with the team.
“I spoke to Jinks before the game and he asked me what I felt. I said, this is your game, you have to be comfortable with playing four or five bowlers. He instantly said, five bowlers, because he understands the workload of the guys throughout the whole season and to keep pushing two guys to take wickets for you regularly is unfair when the body is tired. So that fifth bowler, that was what Anil bhai, Jinks and myself discussed. Kuldeep was the X factor, they hadn’t played him, they hadn’t seen him much and he turned out to be the difference in the game. And I think it was a great call on Jinks and Anil bhai’s part. To win Test matches, you need some courage before you start, to take that little bit of risk and play five batsmen, which we had done throughout the season on most occasions. It takes more responsibility out of you but that is what is required of you playing at this level. It was his and Anil bhai’s decision eventually,” Kohli had said then.
Though that was one of the first signs of smoke, those in the know reveal it had been a constant theme right through their tenure. From benching Cheteshwar Pujara to fielding only players who were completely fit, irrespective of form or seniority, and backing those who were in the set-up before looking beyond, there seems to have been plenty of points where they disagreed. It escalated to a level that during the Champions Trophy, they hardly exchanged words.
“Kohli and Kumble were poles apart when it came to certain things and even though he tried to explain the rationale behind each decision and how it was in the longer interests of the team, Kohli was always keen on putting the best foot forward for the team to win. Both wanted to win, but with different ways and the Dharamsala Test was the tipping point. If you remember, our batting was struggling for the first time in almost a year, and Australian bowlers were having a hold over us and it was in this context that Kohli wanted Shreyas. But Kumble thought rushing the youngster in an important match won’t be right. Both made sense, but somewhere one of them should have understood the other better, which just didn’t happen,” is how an insider put it.