We thought England would come out with more intent: Virat Kohli

Indian skipper Virat Kohli is on the top of the world at the moment, and with good reason to say the least. History will record that the Indians completed their second highest win over an England when Virat Kohli was the skipper. However, when addressing the media following the conclusion of the match, Kohli went on to state that he certainly expected more when it came to their batting in the second innings.

The Britons capitulated to the Indian spin trio and also saw their defensive ploy well and truly succumb to their own fate. Kohli also went on to add that this was a clear test of their patience, something that not many are used to in recent times.

“We thought they would come out with more intent, to be honest,” Kohli said. “And to see them approach that they had obviously given us assurance that once we get a couple of wickets, it will crumble pretty quickly because there wasn’t much intent from the batsmen.”

“It was a test of our patience,” Kohli said. “We knew that they are going to try and annoy us by playing like this and hope that we lose that our cool, bowl with different plans and do too many things, which we did not. We maintained a similar field throughout.

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Kohli also went on to add a few words on the dismissal of Alastair Cook. “He tried to play in front of his pad, not close to the body. That’s it, little margins can give you the game. I think that was a crucial breakthrough we needed and end of day’s play as well, so the new batsman did not get to face any more deliveries. He knew first thing in the morning, four more balls to go in the over and he’s straightaway under pressure. As a batsman, I know that for a fact. It was a pretty crucial dismissal that for us and it really set the tone for us today.”

“That was the plan. To have intent. It is only if you have the intent that you will be able to play the ball accordingly because you are looking to play with the bat. If you don’t have intent, and you are looking to control the ball, and if it does something, then you are in no position to control it. So the edges fly off and you are not in position.

Virat Kohli also went on to add the importance of having intent in the plan. “We set our stall out pretty clearly that from the start of the innings that we wanted to take it as deep as possible,” he said. “We saw in one game, South Africa played 140-odd overs. If we got to play 150-odd overs then we could have saved the game.

“Often in those circumstances, you just say, ‘well I’ll just play and we’ll see where we end up at.’ We made a conscious effort to play that way. Everyone bought into it. It’s not some people’s natural way of playing. But you say, ‘play your natural way and suddenly you’re four down then lower order start digging in and you think, ‘why didn’t we start that right at the beginning of the game’.

“So we made a very clear policy. Of course, when it does not work you feel you could have been more positive. Get the men out around the bat. You make a decision as a captain or as a leadership group. Everyone bought into it and we came up a bit short.”

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