After India got whitewashed for the first time in eight series under his captaincy, Virat Kohli gave full credit to New Zealand without making any excuses. Actually, Kohli thought his team made too much of the conditions right from the first morning of the first Test. He is right. Overcast skies and damp pitches are not restricted only to New Zealand. India encountered them in South Africa and England, where they won a Test even if they lost the series. In Australia too, they encountered tough conditions and yet managed to make history. Here again, Kohli was more disturbed with the batting in the first innings in Christchurch, when they could have easily gone beyond 300. This was the only innings in the series in which they crossed 200.
It was a terrible letdown that denied the bowlers the credit they should have gotten, the fightback by New Zealand’s lower-order notwithstanding. The one factor that cannot be discounted totally is the toss. India lost it in both Tests and had to bat first. Kane Williamson was modest in saying that another 50-odd runs could have made things difficult in Christchurch. Williamson also acknowledged the contributions of his lower-order, marking out the strapping Kyle Jamieson for his 40-odd scores in both Tests.New Zealand crossed the 300-run-mark in the first innings in Wellington after being 225/7. If only India had reduced the deficit to less than a hundred, things could have been different.The experts are at it again. Kapil Dev attributed Kohli’s failure with the bat to his age-related reflexes and deteriorating eyesight, which he thinks is natural when one gets into his 30s.
The same thing was said when Sachin Tendulkar had a slump in his early 30s. And also Virender Sehwag, who even tried batting with glasses before bowing out.Kapil’s World Cup winning teammate Mohinder Amarnath and Sehwag believe that the India captain is just one good knock away from regaining form.
The simple fact is this. When Kohli scored, others also scored around him. But when he failed, others did not come to the team’s rescue. Some even found issues with Kohli’s technique.He reacted exactly the way some top stars do when they are under scrutiny for their slump in form. Predictably, some saw it as a denial when he said he’s hitting the ball well and that there’s nothing wrong with his batting.
Kohli, in his heart of hearts, knows that this was his worst tour in his 12-year career; 38 runs in four innings in Tests, and only one fifty in 11 innings in the entire series.It’s all in the mind. When runs don’t flow, even for a batsman of Kohli’s class, feet don’t move and hands keep swishing the bat at deliveries which are normally dispatched to the boundary.The only difference is that he might have gotten away with the same technical flaw when he got all those big hundreds, chasing and connecting deliveries outside the off-stump. If the away-going ball got him in England in 2014, here it was the indipper. Give the bowlers credit for getting him out.If it is said that bowlers world over have found a chink in Kohli’s technique, it is laughable because pitches will not be similar in other cricket-playing countries.
While the men’s team is back home, preparing for their white-ball series against South Africa, that sensational pocket dynamo Shafali Verma has jumped 20 places to top the T20I women’s batting rankings.
The women will be playing the semifinal against England as the only unbeaten team from the group stage. The spinners have been exceptional. Shafali has given the team rollicking starts and runs for the bowlers to keep the opponents in a bind.Jemimah Rodrigues has done her bit up the order. The prolific Smriti Mandhana and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur have to come good if they have to play their first final. (The writer is a veteran commentator and the views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)