CHENNAI: After a comprehensive defeat in the Leeds Test — sparked by India being bundled out for 78 in the first innings — strengthening the batting by adding further depth may be considered a natural route to take. In the second innings too, India folded meekly in the end as they lost their last eight wickets for 63 runs and failed to capitalize on the hard work of the Indian top-four.
India have played only five specialist batters in the first three Tests of this series with Rishabh Pant coming in at No 6 followed by all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja at No 7. It has been Virat Kohli’s preferred combination for a majority of his captaincy career with his inherent liking being to play five proper bowlers. There may be a school of thought that bringing in another specialist batter at No 6 may be the way to go now, given Pant’s low scores in this series and the general strength of the Indian bowling unit. If they want to go down that route, they have Hanuma Vihari in the reserves to come in and do that job. For the record, he made his debut against England at The Oval – the venue for the next Test – in 2018 and scored 56 batting at No 6.
But Virat Kohli made it clear after the loss on Saturday that they will not change the balance of the team. In other words, Pant will continue coming in at No 6 followed by the five specialist bowlers.
“I don’t believe in that balance. I have never believed in that balance because either you can try to save a defeat or try to win a game. We have drawn games in the past with a similar number of batters in the team. So if your top six or seven don’t do the job, that extra batter is no guarantee of bailing you out every time. If you don’t have the ability or the resources of taking 20 wickets going into a Test, then you are only playing for two results. And that’s not how we play,” Kohli said during the post-match interaction.
In a year where Pant has played knocks of the range that ordinary folks would be happy with over the course of a career, it seems strange to be saying that the dashing wicket-keeper batsman is searching for answers at the moment. More than the low scores in this series, Pant will be irked by the fact that balls slanting across him are causing his downfall. With the natural angle aiding the right-armers, they will continue targeting the left-hander in that corridor.
“Similar conversations were being initiated about Pujara as well, which seem to have disappeared now. We want to give Rishabh all the space to play his game and understand situations and take responsibility, like it is expected of everyone else in the batting order. You can’t judge people all the time on numbers and whether they are succeeding or failing. That is not how you make a team. There is still time in this series. After two more Test matches, we can look back and analyse the areas that were not quite right, but right now is not the time,” Kohli insisted.