Team India suffered an embarrassing 113-run defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the second Test match at the MCA Stadium, Pune on Saturday (October 26). With this loss, India’s remarkable streak of 18 consecutive home Test series victories came to an end.
This result has put the Indian batters on the firing line. On a turning track, India’s two innings folded for 156 and 245 as the Kiwi spinner Mitchell Santner bagged 13 wickets to script his team’s series-clinching victory.
In particular, senior batter Virat Kohli has come under the scanner for not being able to match up to his lofty standards in Test cricket for the past few years. Ever since 2020, Kohli has just scored two Test tons while he has managed to cross fifty just once in the five Tests that he has played thus far in 2024.
In the ongoing home Test season, Kohli has registered scores of 6, 17, 47, 29*, 0, 70, 1 and 17 from eight innings against Bangladesh and New Zealand. As a result, his Test average has dipped to 48.31. He currently has 9035 runs to his name from 117 Tests, including 29 centuries.
Commenting on Kohli’s lean patch, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh said age of the star players becomes a topic of discussion when the team starts losing.
"Look age is a factor for some in this team but then Virat and Jaddu are extremely fit guys. Yes, age, fitness and form are criteria but the questions crop up once you start losing. The onus obviously comes on seniors in the team. It happened in that phase," Harbhajan was quoted as saying by PTI.
Harbhajan also said that anyone can be replaced in the Indian team, as has been proven by the fact that the side has had a succession of great batters over decades.
“Who said that replacements can't be found? (Sunil) Gavaskar saab gaye, (Sachin) Tendulkar saab aaye, Tendulkar saab gaye, humein Kohli mila aur bhavishya mein bhi aisa hoga. (Gavaskar came and went, Tendulkar came and went, we got Kohli and we will get someone in the future as well),” he remarked.
Harbhajan believes there is enough talent in domestic cricket and it is important to give those players opportunities at the right time.
"How did you get Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and now Sarfaraz Khan. It is from domestic cricket only. It is about getting right opportunities at right time. If you get chance at right time, you can become Virat Kohli or else you could be Amol Mujumdar or Amarjeet Kaypee," he said.
"It took Virat 15 years to become what he has become. So you need to look at the talent and may be have an idea that, yes, this boy, if persisted with, can become a match-winner for a decade.
“When we were playing, we heard that Rohit is an enormous talent. How did people know? Because of domestic cricket, and even after first few years of inconsistency, the system backed him. So we will get replacements,” he explained.
