After losing the Test series 2-0 against New Zealand in Churchgate, Virat Kohli talked about the collective failure as a team. He spoke about the batting fiasco but defended his teammates as well.
The Indian captain was asked about Ajinkya Rahane. Kohli explained how solid player Rahane has been in the longer format and said, “Jinks (Rahane) is one of those players who has been very solid for us in Test cricket. I don’t look at averages and numbers and those things too much. It is about impact performances. Has he been able to make enough impact performances for the team? The answer for me is yes. Whenever we have required an important performance from him, more often than not he has delivered.”
He went on to add, “Also have to figure out how many guys in your team do average more than 42-43-44, so if you have a solid middle order, you need to make sure those guys are playing together enough. Few games here and there, if you don’t execute those things properly, it doesn’t mean you become bad players. So Jinks for us, we are not even thinking about those kind of things. He has been solid for us. He has put his hand up on many occasions when the team has been in trouble so there are no issues there.”
While speaking about Pujara Kohli recalled the the 2018-19 tour of Australia where Pujara was incredible. He said, “It’s not like that at all. If you take the Australia series, Pujara made the biggest contribution there. It was the first time we won a series there. If you take things in isolation, you will find lots of things to use as excuses, that this didn’t happen or something didn’t happen because of that.”
He further opined, “When you play collectively, your aim is to put 300-350 on the board. Whether five people score 50-60 each or one person makes 150, like Pujara did in Australia, our aim to have a big score on the board. If that doesn’t happen collectively, you must think about that rather than thinking what individuals have done. No one thinks like that. You play as a team and you want to do well as a team.”
Kohli went on to defend the selection of Rishabh Pant over Wriddhiman Saha as well. His explained how Pant earned his place in the team after hard work. “We have given a lot of chances to Rishabh, you need to figure out when is the right time to give someone a chance. I don’t see anyone taking their place for granted in this team, no one here has come in thinking that I am going to play every game. Rishabh has worked very hard behind the scenes, so we thought of giving him a chance in this series. We thought he will come good in this series, but as a collective unit, we did not show a good batting performance.”
According to the captain, “Collectively as a batting unit we did not perform. To single out individuals, I don’t believe in that. We take the hit together as a group, whether as a batting group or as a team. And we try to correct those things and move forward.”