A lot has been said about India settling for a draw in the first Test in Kanpur, despite putting New Zealand on the mat. While the stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane had drawn criticisms for not declaring the innings a bit more early, a section of the cricket fraternity believed that the intent was lacking.
India’s regular captain Virat Kohli watched the proceedings on television, as he had decided to take a short break, and he feels that under Rahane, the team did everything that it possibly could have done. “I watched the game and I think we tried everything we could as a team. Everyone has different ways of approaching things, probably would have been able to answer that if I was in that situation, but I was not in that situation so, I know that the team tried everything that they could and Jinks (Rahane) has always brought up great ideas to make sure we put the opposition under pressure with strategy and field placings and with rotating the bowlers as well,” Kohli said on the eve of the second Test, which begins in Mumbai on Friday.
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“Sometimes, when you are not able to pull off a result, you also have to give credit to the opposition for them to bat out 10-12 overs in the end with the last wicket, was a good effort, so you have to be realistic about the scenario, you have to be realistic about the situation,” Kohli added.
“You look to improve on things that you still can and you find ways of winning and that’s been the essence of our team, regardless of who’s been in charge and I think that has become the culture of this team and we will continue to look to find opportunities to put our team in a winning position whenever we can.”
The captain also insisted that it is important to accept the outcome. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen and you have to accept that and I know things on the outside are probably looked at from a different lens because you are not living those moments in the group, you are not living those moments on the field. So, no one knows what conversations happen, the kind of effort being put in to get that result and it is a very sacred thing for the team, as long as that belief and that understanding stays within the change room. Eventually, none of the other things matter and have never mattered to us as a team because it is not out of ignorance or neglect, it is just the understanding that we probably know more about what happened on the field than anyone else…”
“We have to understand and we need to know the truth behind what happened and why those things happened and keep finding ways to improve as a team,” the captain stated.
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