Virat Kohli led team India has recently faced a defeat against New Zealand in the first Test at Wellington. New Zealand outclassed India by 10 wickets, early on the fourth morning of the match. While the batsmen crumbled under the pressure, the bowlers failed to put the pressure on the opposition, that cost them the game.
“Day one, the toss did turn out to be very important. But at the same time, we take a lot of pride in being competitive as a batting unit and we were just not competitive enough. I don’t think we put their bowlers under enough pressure. Anything over 220-230 and we would have been talking a different language. Even the deficit looks lot lesser if you get that score and take those last three wickets cheaply,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
On day three, India were going strong as they picked up seven wickets, with the Kiwis only 50-odd runs ahead. But then a partnership between Colin de Grandhomme and Kyle Jamieson changed the fate of the match. Also, a 38-run cameo from Trent Boult made the things worse for India.
Read here: Poonam Yadav shares what keeps her going
“The first innings really put us behind in the game and the lead put us under pressure. As a bowling group, we have been pretty competitive in bowling good channels for long periods of time. Till about 7 wickets, we were pretty good. The wicket did get better. The last 3 wickets and those 120 runs hurt us and pushed us out of the game,” Kohli shared.
“Overall, we did put in a good effort but can still be more disciplined. It doesn’t need to be pointed to them as the bowlers have recognized themselves. That can happen at the international level. You don’t have to be too hard on the guys,” he added.
However, the captain backed the batting failure of India and expected to do good in the next Test.
“Prithvi has played only two games away from home. He is a natural strokemaker and would figure out things to get the runs going. Mayank was outstanding in both the innings. Him and Jinks were the only two batters who got some tempo. We just need to stick our template as a batting unit,” Virat Kohli concluded.
