After Mahendra Singh Dhoni stepped down as a test captain of the Indian Cricket Team after a painful Australia tour, young sensation Virat Kohli became the new red ball captain of the Indian Cricket Team. Virat Kohli captained India in 61 tests but the most important test match of his career is the World Test Championship Final, held at Southampton in 2021. The World Test Championship started back on August 1, 2019, with 71 Test matches and 27 series, involving nine elite teams. Virat Kohli’s wait for an ICC trophy as a captain is becoming too long. Before losing the World Test Championship Final against New Zealand in Southampton, the men in Blue have suffered the pain of crashing out of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup Semi-Final in Old Trafford and losing against arch-rival Pakistan in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in Kennington Oval, London.
After a cautious start on the 6th day of the Test match, Kohli was again trapped by his RCB teammate Kyle Jamieson on 13(29). Chesteshwar Pujara continued his run drought. He was also outsmarted by Jamieson on 15(80). Pujara has failed to score enough runs for his team since February. The rest of the batting line-up collapsed like a house of cards as everyone was hungry for quick runs, especially Rishabh Pant, who played a meaningless shot in a crucial moment of the match. The plan of scoring quick runs against the mighty New Zealand pace attack didn’t work well. Desperately pressing for the win and poor shot selections went against Virat Kohli & co. and the match went out of hand for Indian Cricket Team.
Indian openers, Shubman Gill & Rohit Sharma failed to score big runs in both innings. Lack of swing bowling toiled India in this test. Indian team felt the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in English conditions. Ishant Sharma managed only three wickets in this test match with his below-average bowling. The Indian team will definitely feel the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the upcoming England tour. Ravichandran Ashwin’s wonderful spell (10–5–17–2) faded into disappointment as Kane Williamson & Ross Taylor build together an eight-wicket victory. After the game, Kohli said, “I am not in absolute agreement of deciding the best Test side in the world over the course of one game. If it is a test series, it has to be a test of character over three tests — which team has the ability to come back in the series or totally blow away the other team. It can’t just be pressure applied over two days of good cricket and then you suddenly are not a good Test side anymore. I don’t believe in it.” Kohli also added, “You have to reassess and replan and understand what dynamics work for the team and how we can be fearless. Bring in the right people who have the right mindset to perform.” As a fan of the Indian Cricket Team, I hope it isn’t too late to reassess and replan.
