Not line & length but lack of intent: Virat Kohli

CHENNAI: Intent. It was a word captain Virat Kohli repeated multiple times, finding it difficult to put into words the collapse of Saturday. On the field, he is full of intent. His energy rubs on the rest, he likes taking the first step forward. He prefers to take initiatives. He is forever ready to take any opposition head on. On the eve of the Adelaide Test, he had even compared his personality to that of New India, that takes challenges.

This 'intent' had landed his team in trouble in the past. Most infamously, in South Africa in 2018. The need to show intent saw No 3 Cheteshwar Pujara getting run out twice in the Centurion Test. That was a different Kohli and time, back then. These days, he doesn't chop and change that often. The axe doesn't hang over Pujara or Ajinkya Rahane's head anymore. Batsmen have been given the breathing space they wanted, without needing to worry about their place in the XI. It was supposed to bring the best out of them.

These days, Kohli doesn't choose stroke-makers in place of his No 3, who is brilliant at blocking the opposition out of a Test. But there are days, when you need them to play out of their zone too. Surely, they all received good balls, but there was a reason why Kohli kept mentioning 'intent' after the match. Day 3 of Test matches gives teams an indication of what they have to do in the remaining sessions. India came to Adelaide on Saturday morning, with an overnight lead of 62, and the time was right for them to seize control.

While not many could have survived that spell from Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, there was something similar in what all of them did. Everyone played from the crease. Maybe it was forced by the pace duo's ability to land consistently on the corridor of uncertainty, that it caught batsmen in two minds whether to move forward or go back. Kohli was asked whether the lines Cummins and Hazlewood operated played in their minds. He offered a different take.

“They were bowling similar lengths in the first innings as well. We were just better at playing those and having a plan around it on how we wanted to go about things. A bit of lead can always be tricky because as a batting unit you can go into a head space where you feel we are just 50 or 60 ahead and you don't want to lose early wickets and allow the opposition back into the game. So you always have to be positive. Hence I said we lacked intent because we should have just seen where the game has to go rather than where it has come to and move the game forward, which we were not able to do. I think the way we batted allowed them to look more potent than they were in the morning to be honest. Historically, I can tell you, whenever I have batted well in these situations my plan has been to go and get a quick 30-40 runs and take the game forward. This is very significant.”

But therein lies Kohli's problem. Despite being around for nearly the same time as Kohli, Pujara – barring the last tour of Australia in 2018/19 — and Rahane haven't stepped up as often as one expected them to. In overseas conditions, India still relies heavily on the captain. There are few batsmen who put their hands up and do the job as consistently as their captain does. “We have played enough cricket to understand what needs to be done at different stages of a Test match and it is just lack of execution. It is just a lack of executing a plan that is apt for the situation and it is to move the game. Day 3 is called moving day and you drive home the advantage. Lead of 62 runs with nine wickets in hand, should have definitely put in a better batting performance” Kohli lamented.