You don’t need mind, face or body readers to study a winning captain or the vanquished in cricket. You don’t expect a victorious captain to be brooding, scratching his stubble or scalp, nor, for that matter, a losing captain whistling around and grinning.
The winning captain hardly encounters any serious questions as he drools out pearls of wisdom, whereas the losing skipper is invariably taken to task unsparingly on everything, right from team selection to on-field strategy. Captains predictably respond and the media is ever ready to pounce on a captain who just loses a series.
Virat Kohli was predictably bombarded at the Centurion and some did not like the way he fielded those questions. The same media was eating out of his hand for close to two years before coming to South Africa. What we don’t accept is that we all honestly felt that this team could do a lot better than it did. A straight 2-0 bashing is unacceptable for the World No 1 team, if not totally unexpected.
Theories in sport are relative, rarely conclusive. The pre-tour assessments are based on India’s showing in the subcontinent or in the Caribbean, which is anything but cricketing now. This whole year, the selectors and team management will be under the microscope, picking on every selection and dissecting every move on the field on tours to England and Australia.
The bonhomie between Kohli and the snooping media is over, the lines are clearly drawn now. The Indian captain has come a long way from his early days when he snapped at everything, both on and off the field. After taking over as skipper, his own batting form has kept the media at arm’s length and the team also gave little chance for any confrontation.
All the same, there had been a lingering unhappiness at the way Kohli has been getting away with, be it the appointment of coach or matters of selection. He and Ravi Shastri got the support staff they wanted and life had been hunky-dory for long.
The first signs of discord were visible after the second Test. He did not lose his cool but he was clearly in no mood to concede anything to the media. Like Morarji Desai, he answered every question with a counter-question to frustrate the aggressive questioners. He stuck to his ground even if he felt that some questioners sounded like proxies to former star cricketers. One former star had a puzzling theory, he wanted Rahane to be brought into the eleven and at the same time felt Rohit Sharma should be given another chance.
Now that the series has gone, it is being said that Dhawan should not have played at Newlands, and should have been in the team for the second Test, where the pitch was tailor-made for him! As for bowling, there was little scope to tinker with. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who these days bowls 140 kmph plus, could have been retained but then Kohli-Shastri felt the pitch, with a subcontinental texture, needed a bowler who could bowl for long spells and included Ishant Sharma.
Kohli retorted when asked about inconsistency in team selection and compulsive changes and why he does not play the same team in two consecutive Tests. He wanted to know what would be the reporter’s ideal team. He played his last dice by saying his team came close to winning both Tests unlike the South Africans, who were simply outclassed when they last came to India. He had a point, but that does not count as record books will say that India lost the series.
Kohli must be wishing how he had a Mahendra Singh Dhoni by his side like in the shorter formats. Who does he depend on for his on-field consultations with his deputy not finding a place in the playing eleven?
Like most of his predecessors, Kohli cannot and will not take off-the-cuff-remarks from anyone. A former captain questioned Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s criticism of his team saying cricket had come a long way from the Nawab Sahib’s days. Of all recent captains, Dhoni alone faced the media with equanimity, throwing an occasional smile to disarm them. He did not hesitate to say his bowlers lacked direction and batsmen the will to stick it out.
Kohli, however, wants to be a players’ captain and he will go to any length to defend them, though he will not be happy with the way his batsmen gave in without a fight after the bowlers did their job by taking 20 wickets not once but twice.
(Veturi Srivatsa is a senior journalist and the views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)