Kohli: Problem is not technical but mental

Captain Virat Kohli today urged followers of Indian cricket to not be judgemental about his team’s poor batting performance after just one Test as the problem is more about making ‘mental adjustments’ rather than technical.

“We should not judge so fast, and jump to conclusions As a team, we keep patience. We don’t judge so fast. We don’t see any pattern to (the failures). As far as wickets falling in heap is concerned, it is not about technique, it is more of a mental aspect,” Kohli said at the pre-match press conference.

“There must be a clear plan on how to face the first 20-30 balls, and more often than not that plan does not involve aggression. There we need some composure rather than aggression. As a batting unit, we have discussed that,” the skipper said.

Kohli said from a team’s perspective they don’t analyse how bad a defeat can look as their focus in on cutting down on margin of error in the next game. “From outside, it looks very bad, especially as it is Test cricket and we are playing in England, where it is anyway difficult. But we only need to bring down the margin of error and beyond that we don’t need to worry too much.”

His captaincy has come for some flak from the pundits but the skipper defended himself saying that he is doing his best. “I am doing as much as I can as the captain and there is constant feedback from the management. People have their own ways of looking at the game and their own ideas when it comes to captaincy and so on, but I feel I have had really good communication with all the players.”

Kohli did drop a hint that a second specialist spinner could be an option as the surface looks dry. “(It) could be a tempting thought. Just walking here the pitch looked very hard and the surface looked very dry. It is a tempting thought to field two spinners but we have to take a call on that depending on the team balance. But two spinners are definitely in contention,” he said.

When asked if it hurt more that India lost after his lionhearted effort (149 and 51), Kohli begged to differ.

“It doesn’t only hurt when you score runs and you don’t win but it also hurts when you are not scoring runs as well and the team is not doing well.”

But world’s premier Test batsman cautioned that every time it won’t be possible for him to score but it doesn’t matter till someone

“There must be a clear plan on how to face the first 20-30 balls, and more often than not that plan does not involve aggression. There we need some composure rather than aggression. As a batting unit, we have discussed that”

else takes the team over the line. “It doesn’t matter whether I get the runs or Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane) does or (Murali) Vijay does or KL (Rahul) does or whoever does. As long as we cross the line, that is the only thing that matters,” Kohli said.

Kohli however didn’t give a clear cut reply whether it was his technique of a pronounced front-foot movement against the likes of James Anderson that stood out unlike others.

“It is very difficult for me to point it out. Individuals react differently to different things, and there are variable reasons as to why a particular player is doing a certain thing on the field. That goes into the preparation bit as well.”