Relentless pressure crumbled India, first-innings collapse was bizarre: Says skipper Virat Kohli

India’s meek capitulation in the first innings of the third test was “strange” for skipper Virat Kohli, who said they collapsed in the face of the incessant pressure created by England’s bowlers.

India lost the Leeds Test by an innings and 76 runs as England levelled the five-match series 1-1.

Kohli admitted after being all out for 78, they were always playing a catch-up game.

“Basically down to scoreboard pressure… Always up against it when you get out for under 80, and the opposition puts up such a big score,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.

“But we did well to stay in the game yesterday, fight back as much as we could, and gave ourselves a chance. But the pressure today was outstanding from the England bowlers and eventually they got the results they wanted,” he said.

The India captain said the batting collapse they suffered in the first innings was “quite bizarre” after their stupendous show in the Lord’s Test.

“It can happen in this country, batting collapses. We thought the pitch was good to bat on, coming on nicely. But the discipline forced mistakes and the pressure was relentless. Difficult to cope when you’re not scoring runs. That caused the batting order to crumble,” he said.

Asked if, in hindsight, he would say that the decision to bat was a mistake, Kohli disagreed.

“No, pitch looked good to bat on, when England batted it was a different ball game because we weren’t as good with the ball. The result is a reflection of how the teams played in this game, we expected them to bounce back.”

Kohli said they can’t always depend on the lower-order batsmen to rescue them like it happened in Lord’s where Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah shocked England with their gritty batting.

“Depth, it’s an argument you can have. The top order has to give enough runs for the lower middle order to step up. We did pretty well in the first two games, when you have a result like this you can’t take too much from it. As a batting group we need to stay close and confident, even after 36 all out (in Australia) we came back,” he said.

Kohli remained non-committal on if one more spinner will be added in the next Test, starting September 2 at the Oval.

“It depends on the pitch. We will assess the surface, how much moisture is there and our decision will be based on that. I think this template works, the four seamers (in these conditions). For sure, we set the template, you’re playing Test cricket and we’ve bounced back in the past.

“There are things we need to improve but we will take pride in trying to correct those errors, something we are looking forward to,” he said.

England skipper Joe Root cold not stop smiling after his team’s “clinical performance.”

“It was fantastic, clinical performance, the two big lads were exceptional, built pressure early on. Three maidens this morning, and we felt we were in a good place to take wickets. When chances came we took them,” he said.

“Look at the talent in the dressing room we know we’re capable, just have to be more consistent. Brilliant with the ball but the opening partnership with the bat was fantastic,” Root said.

We will give Pant all the space that he needs, says Kohli
India skipper Virat Kohli on Saturday backed under-fire wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, saying the team management will give him all the space that he needs in the remainder of the five-Test series against England.

The 23-year-old Pant, who has played in all the three Tests so far in the ongoing England series, hasn’t been able to get going with the bat, managing 25 at Nottingham, 37 and 22 at Lord’s, and 2 and 1 at Leeds for a total of only 87 runs.

“Well again, as I said, with one loss I cannot assess that or I cannot start analysing that as a captain. Definitely the management is not going to start analysing that because we are not failing as a team.

“Consistently we are not losing, this is what I mean, when I say that, we failed this game as team definitely and we take responsibility for that,” Kohli said at the virtual post-match press conference when asked whether Pant’s lack of runs was creating problems for the lower middle-order.

“Similar conversations were being initiated about (Cheteshwar) Pujara as well, which seemed to have disappeared after yesterday, so we want to give, as I said in the past, Rishabh all the space to play his game and understand situations and take responsibility like it is expected of everyone else in the batting order,” said Kohli.

According to Kohli, cricketers cannot be judged all the time on the basis of numbers.

“You can’t judge people all the time on numbers, and whether they are succeeding or failing, that is not how you make a team.

“There is still time in this series. After two more Test matches, we can look back and reflect and analyse, okay these are the areas that were not quite right but at this moment, it’s not the time,” the skipper said.