CHENNAI: Virat Kohli is forthright with words. Victory or defeat, the skipper speaks his mind and makes it clear that neither he nor the team are worried about what people think about them. As long as they are happy doing what they are, he is cool about it. It was no different after the 10-wicket loss in the first Test in New Zealand. “We haven’t played well, but if people want to make a mountain out of it, we can’t help it… I don’t think we become a bad team overnight for losing one match. The dressing room thinks differently. The team atmosphere is different,” Kohli said in Wellington on Monday.
Fair argument. But there were hints of an old malaise in the way things unfolded at Basin Reserve. Indian batsmen have seldom been good travellers to England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, where fast bowlers are more effective because of the movement and bounce they generate. If the first Test was an indication, the problem persists. Other than a few poor shots — Kohli himself being guilty of it in both innings — India’s batsmen failed to cope with New Zealand’s consistent probing around the off-stump channel. Assistance from the pitch wasn’t the same all the time, but their bowlers rarely deviated from the primary line of attack, using the short-pitched delivery mostly as Plan B.