Updated: December 19, 2020 10:53:08 pm
Virat Kohli of India stands with arms crossed near the end of her match against Australia on the third day of her cricket test match at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia on Saturday 19 December 2020. Australia won the match . (Source: AP)
Virat Kohli did not lose both words and emotions, when he addressed the press after a chaotic defeat that included the fall of India to its lowest total in the history of the Test. The words came off his tongue as always, in a rush. The gaze was firm and fixed, as it usually is.
The eyes were eerily serene. They betrayed no anguish or anguish, no fear or shock. A kind of deadpan expression, like in a trance in some supernatural incident. As if the mind is frozen.
It was as unusual as Kohli had been in her career. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and in his eyes.
On Saturday, Kohli could muster neither courage nor conviction, dissection or defense, sarcasm or pain. A man who feeds on emotions seemed unemotional. He seemed as lost as the rest of the cricket world seemed to be, unable to react, empty and desolate. Entering his sixth year as captain, he has lost games badly, lost games he shouldn’t have, rode the waves and rolled downhill. But he rarely seemed defeated. Not in Galle or Wellington, not in Durban or Birmingham.
“Strange,” he said when asked to evaluate how the first session unfolded. Then he paused, the pause awkwardly hanging up before adding, “It all happened so fast that no one could understand it. That was very, very surprising and disappointing for everyone. “
The rest of the press conference felt like an autopsy as the grim surgeon gave the most common responses, rushing through the formality of the interaction.
Collapse? They are routine in test cricket. “Playing at the highest level, there will definitely be breakdowns over and over again. We have to accept our mistakes and understand what we need to work on. But this is not cricket at the club level, ”he said.
There is no cause for undue concern, he says, even though India has not crossed 300 in its last six outings. “I don’t think it’s anything alarming. We can very well sit here and make a mountain out of a molehill. It’s basically about looking at things from the right perspective and knowing what we have to do as a team to advance to Melbourne, ”he said.
The images of a mountain out of a grain of sand could not have been more inopportune or inappropriate. In the wake of this defeat, Kohli’s words sounded hollow. Almost silly.
Was it a mentality problem, not having played Test in almost 10 months? “No,” he emphasized before giving more details: “We have played enough cricket to understand what to do in the different stages of a test match. I don’t think any mental fatigue was involved. It was just a lack of execution. “
He highlighted lack of intention as the defining reason for the defeat. “If your mentality is not the correct one, as ours was not it today when we lacked the intention, the opposition can sense it and put you under extreme pressure. That’s exactly what happened, ”he said.
Virat Kohli shakes hands with the Australian players after the end of the Adelaide Test. (AP)
Although there was regret. In the receptions they fell and in letting Tim Paine eat the lead with his cheerful hitting. “That would definitely have been a boost for us if we had a few more races advantage. If we already had 100 races to spare and a decent start, the opposition starts to panic. In test cricket, if you don’t take a chance when you are presented with it, it can be very expensive, ”he said.
More importantly, in the lack of a fight in the second inning. “They also bowled of similar lengths in the first innings. We were just better playing with them and having a plan about it and how we wanted to do things, ”he said.
Then he regretted the lack of positivity. “I think the way we hit allowed them to look more powerful than they were in the morning. They pitched similarly in the first innings and we hit much better. A little head start can always be tricky because as a hitting unit you can get into a headspace where you feel like we’re only 50 or 60 ahead and you don’t want to lose early terrain and allow the opposition to get back into the game. ” said, said.
The only time he showed any tension was when someone asked him about the comfort zone. “In international cricket, there is nothing like a comfort zone,” he said, his eyes blazing with rage.
He, of course, highlighted the resilience of his teammates, even without him. “I am sure that the team will recover strongly. I am sure we will learn from this. I don’t think we’ve ever had a batting collapse as bad as this and it can only go up from here, ”he emphasized.
But even the defense lacked the usual vigor.
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