India’s weekday begins with a weak end

Kohli suffers first series sweep as captain after visitors crash to 7-wicket loss within three days of 2nd Test

CHRISTCHURCH: A disappointed Virat Kohli on Monday admitted his side was “completely outplayed” by New Zealand in the two-Test series and they can’t live in denial about “not being brave enough” to counter adverse conditions.

India were outplayed by seven wickets inside three days in the second Test here with the home team brushing aside the world No. 1 team to complete a memorable series sweep. New Zealand chased down a modest target of 132 in just 36 overs, after India’s second innings folded for 124 in less than an hour into Monday.

India, perched atop the World Test Championship table, were humiliated 0-2, found wanting yet again when up against highquality seamers overseas.

The Indian batting was in a shambles and the skipper said the team management will have to find solutions despite constraints caused by a packed schedule. “Quite disappointed with how we played in this series. I feel like we were completely outplayed in this series,” the Indian captain said in his assessment.

“We didn’t play the kind of cricket we do as a team. The thing to take away from here is to not shy away from things that have gone wrong and instead address them straight up, and not be in denial,” he said.

Batsmen had to take the blame after repeatedly failing, and Kohli (he managed 38 runs in four innings) admitted it. “The batsmen didn’t do enough for the bowlers to try and attack. The bowling was good, I thought even in Wellington we bowled well. Sometimes if you bowl well and things don’t happen, you have to take it in your stride,” Kohli said.

Asked to point out what exactly went wrong, Kohli felt the approach to the series in adverse conditions was “not ideal”.

“The outlook as far as I am concerned, and as far as I saw things happening, was not ideal for us in this series. We were not positive enough. We were not brave enough in moments, which we have done in the past. Skills follow your mindset, simple as that.”

However, asked if New Zealand can be called India’s “bogey team”, having lost to the Black Caps in the 2019 World Cup semifinal and two series—ODIs and Tests—he dismissed it.

“I am sure no one was saying that in the first half of the tour,” he said, referring to the 5-0 T20 series victory. “You can’t just make a team a bogey team because of one Test series defeat and a semi-final loss. They played better cricket on that day and in this Test series, and there is no shame in accepting that. “We are not trying to create some controversy by tagging a team or naming a bogey team or something like that. All this bogey team and all, we don’t believe in.”

But does India have enough time to iron out the flaws considering the amount of cricket it plays? “There are two ways to look at it. I would much rather be in the middle and try to correct those things rather than having too much time in between and

waiting for a game to arrive so that you can figure out whether you have corrected it or not,” said Kohli. “The advantage of playing a lot of cricket is that if you are working on something,

you have many games to try and execute it. It’s the way you look at it. As I said, it needs to be balanced. Neither can you over think nor be in denial. It works differently for different people.”

COMPLICATING THINGS

Asked about the mistakes his batsmen can rectify, Kohli said clarity of mind was paramount. “Something (clarity) we failed to do as a batting unit, and I truly believe we made too much of the conditions from the first day onwards, of the first Test: Overcast, a bit of dampness on the pitch; we never spoke of these things before. Skills follow your mindset.

Denying the team depended too heavily on him, he said: “You understand what you can learn from them, put your head down and work hard. The only communication that has happened is don’t forget what has happened, learn from it. It’s a delicate balance, you can’t ignore it, you can’t dwell on it every day. (It’s) having the capacity to accept what went wrong and work on those mistakes.”