Virat Kohli was grumpy after India’s heavy defeat to England in the first Test, the captain’s brow furrowed as he leaned into the camera for the post-match press conference on Zoom.
India’s captain thought the pitch in Chennai was too flat on the first two days, when England – and Joe Root in particular – batted as though it was a timeless Test. Kohli felt that the seam of the SG ball, talked up beforehand as being new and improved, was “destroyed” in 60 overs. And he was annoyed that Shahbaz Nadeem and Washington Sundar had leaked runs, offering scant support to Ravichandran Ashwin and denying him the control that every captain craves.
Yet none of these things caused India to lose by 227 runs. Looking back with a cool head, Kohli will realise that you do not win too many matches on traditional Indian pitches, such as the one witnessed in Chennai, when you score only 337 in your first innings.
Kohli does not merely crave control out in the middle; it is absolutely central to his style of play and leadership. It is for this reason that he, backed up by the coach, Ravi Shastri, has demanded that home pitches turn and bounce from day one. It is not underprepared surfaces that the think tank has demanded but ones that ensure the toss does not play a huge part in the game, as was the case in the first Test.
As a captain, Kohli likes to be in the game at all times; to feel he can change the course of events with direct interventions. Pitches that start off as sleeping beauties only to suddenly burst into life for a final day of batting nightmares call for a kind of patience that does not come naturally to a cricketer who produces his best cricket when the cauldron is hottest.
That patience, already wearing thin, was tested at the end of Tuesday’s defeat when Kohli was asked a pointed question about Ajinkya Rahane’s lack of runs. “Look if you’re trying to dig something out, you’re not going to get anything because there’s nothing,” he snapped back. “I’ve said this many times in the past as well – along with [Chesteshwar] Pujara, Rahane is our most important Test batsman and he is going to continue to be.”
The fact is Rahane has scores of 27*, 22, 4, 37, 24, 1 and 0 since his series-defining century in Melbourne. He was, of course, the captain who led India to history in Australia after Kohli flew home for the birth of his first child. Kohli enjoyed the successes of the team from afar but he would not be human if he did not wish he was able to be a part of India’s greatest overseas comeback win. And it can’t help that, as a result of this absence, Kohli has presided over four Test losses on the trot – in Wellington, Christchurch, Adelaide and now, Chennai.
The manner in which Rahane instantly inspired a battered and bruised team, comprising reserves and net bowlers, to victory in Melbourne set tongues wagging back home in India. Could the man they call Jinx be best placed to lead the Test team? While there is little suggestion that serious thought has been given to a permanent switch by those within the Indian set-up, the whispers persist.
And, as is usually the case in India, the conspiracy theorists were out in force after the loss in Chennai. Why was Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist spinner not played? Was Mohammad Siraj, who had as good a debut series as any Indian fast bowler in recent memory, dropped simply to allow Ishant Sharma a speedy pathway to his 300th Test wicket? And, what exactly happened in that video grab featuring Kuldeep and Siraj, where the two benched players appeared to get physical?
As absurd as some of these lines of enquiry are, the very fact that India’s finest are subjected to such scrutiny on a daily basis must have some effect on the players, trapped as they are in a seemingly never-ending bio-bubble, experiencing the world more and more via the online lens.
Within the Indian team, there will be no despair at the moment. England came into the series on the back of success in Sri Lanka and India having played four Tests in completely different conditions in Australia. That the home team should require a moment to adjust, even to the most familiar of conditions, was only expected. What’s more, India’s tendency to start slowly — albeit usually away rather than at home — is more than matched by their ability to come back quickly.
What India need before the second Test is for Kohli to switch from being grumpy to downright angry. That is when he is at his most dangerous, channelling that edge in both his batting and aggression on the field. When all is calm, Kohli is not averse to getting stuck into the opposition or whipping up the crowd into a frenzy to create the necessary spark. There are 25,000 spectators expected in Chennai on Saturday for the second Test and it is a resource he will call upon.
There is a method to Kohli’s madness and a purpose to his cricketing anger. Mere grumpiness will not suffice.
