Virat Kohli has defended his four-man seam attack. (AP)India captain Virat Kohli backed his decision to field a four-man seam attack in the second Test against Australia in Perth. Kohli also refuted the theory that India had missed a trick by not playing a spinner. Ever since the Perth Test began, the selection of India’s playing XI has been the core of every debate but Kohli maintained that it was taken on the basis of the conditions that were on offer. However, the move backfired as the lower order became thin and chasing a target of 287 in the fourth innings, India succumbed to a 146-run defeat.
“We didn’t have that control particularly in the first innings, not to the extent that we wanted. But in the second innings for sure, especially yesterday (day four) the first session, giving away only 56 odd runs without getting a wicket. I think it was outstanding bowling and obviously, Mohammed Shami did what he did in the next session with the ball, which was again wonderful to see. I think they executed their plans to 95 percent of what we expected. I think you definitely can be happy with that,” Kohli said speaking at the press-match conference on Tuesday.
“In the past when we have played four quicks, we definitely haven’t been as consistent as we were in this game. So, I think they were pretty accurate, pretty consistent and we were convinced about going in with four fast bowlers looking at the conditions,” the Indian skipper added.
Explaining the rationale of picking Umesh Yadav ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar Kohli said, “Bhuvi hasn’t played a lot of 4-day cricket recently. Umesh picked up 10 wickets in his last Test. He was in bowling rhythm and that was the reason for going ahead with him instead of Bhuvi.”
With Umesh walking in as the fourth seamer the tail became a bit too long and batting a bit too thin. “You obviously have two situations that you can think of. When you pick another fast bowler, obviously R Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja have more ability with the bat, we all know that. It’s a very tricky decision to make – what kind of a bowling option you want to go with or you want to think that that guy can contribute with the bat as well,” Kohli said.
“So eventually you come to one decision. We backed that decision and went ahead with it. Whether it comes off or not, that’s a different thing but we were totally convinced in the team that that was our best combination to go with and the batsmen have to take responsibility,” he explained.
“There are lots of variables that can happen during the course of a cricket match but before that, you need to have clarity as to what you want to do and as a side, we were totally clear that this was the combination we wanted to go with,” he added.
Kohli also said that there was no swearing or any personal attacks during his verbal duel with Australian skipper Tim Paine and no line was crossed in the second Test. “Well, it is definitely nothing compared to 2014, to be honest,” said Kohli before adding, “As long as there is no swearing on the field, and there are no personal attacks, the line doesn’t get crossed. That’s it!.”
“But look, in the competitive spirit it stays on the field. I am not going to go into details but to be honest it’s not of importance for me to speak on and it’s something that’s done,” he said after India were dismissed for 140 in the second innings,” he said.
“I don’t think I showed any displeasure at the dismissal at all. An appeal was made on call and that’s it. It was done, Australia played better cricket than us and they deserved to win. But I will say that Australia played better cricket than us and they played more consistently. That’s why they won the match. Beyond that, I don’t think I need to over-analyze this game, we are still in a very good space. If we show greater composure, we can repeat what we did in Adelaide,” he concluded.
