Team India suffered a comprehensive 8-wicket defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final on Wednesday (June 23).
Resuming their second innings from 64/2, Team India got bowled out for 170 on the reserve sixth day in 73 overs, setting the Kiwis a modest target of 139 runs.
In reply, New Zealand rode on skipper Kane Williamson’s 52 not out and Ross Taylor’s unbeaten 47 to overhaul the target with 7.1 overs left in the day.
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Addressing the press conference after the match, India skipper Virat Kohli hinted at overhaul of his Test side, saying that “right people who have the right mindset to perform” will be brought in following a reassessment.
While Kohli didn’t take any names, he expressed his displeasure at some players for not showing enough “intent” to score runs.
Notably, veteran batsman Cheteshwar Pujara scored 8 off 54 balls in the first innings and followed it with 15 off 80 balls in the second essay.
“We will continue to reassess and continue to have conversations around what are the things required to strengthen our side and not follow or fall prey to certain patterns,” Kohli said at the post-match virtual press conference.
“We will not wait for a year or so and have to plan ahead. If you see our white ball team now, we have great depth and guys are ready and confident. Same thing needs to be done with Test cricket.
“You have to reassess and replan and understand what dynamics work for the team and how we can be fearless. Bring in right people who have right mindset to perform,” he added.
According to the Indian captain, it is important to keep evolving and improving with the game.
“I think evolving with the game and improving yourself with the game is very important and when you have been a top side for few years in a row, you don’t want to suddenly drop your standards…
“We will certainly take those decisions and have those conversations and in near future,” he remarked.
Kohli also spoke about finding ways to score runs against potent bowling attacks like that of New Zealand.
“We definitely need to work out better plans on understanding how to score runs. We have to stay in sync with the momentum of the game and not let the game drift away too much. I don’t think there are any technical difficulties as such,” he asserted.
“It’s more down to game awareness and being more brave in putting bowlers under pressure and not allowing them to bowl in similar areas for longer periods of time unless it is absolutely overcast and ball swinging all over the place like it happened on day 1.”
“You can’t be too worried about getting out as your bringing the bowler into the game completely. If as a batting unit, we put 300 on the board, it’s a different kind of pressure on opposition with the kind of bowlers we have.
For Virat Kohli, it is important to strike a balance between well-timed strokeplay and holding an end.
“The endeavour would be to try and score runs and not worry about getting out in testing conditions. That’s the way you can put the opposition under pressure otherwise you are standing there hoping that you don’t get out, which you eventually will be because you are not being optimistic enough.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant drew criticism for charging charge down the track against pacers and missing the swinging deliveries but the skipper was pleased with his intent to score runs.
“Rishabh’s definitely going to be an expressive player whenever he gets an opportunity…he assesses it really well and when things don’t come off, you can say error in judgement, which is acceptable in sport,” Kohli said.
“But we don’t want him to lose his positivity or optimism in changing the situation for team. We are not too worried. It is up to him to understand whether it was error in judgement and rectify it moving forward.”
(With PTI inputs)
