Little boss Virat not quite on top while leading Delhi stars
INDORE: Virat Kohli has captained India, and done it successfully. He has won accolades from fans and experts and been anointed as the future skipper. However, he had young men to lead.
But captaining Delhi, with the old guard comprising Virender Sehwag and Ashish Nehra, was always going to be different.
That assertiveness with others, including the admonishments and frequent hand gestures, had to be put away when it came to his senior state team mates.
BOSSING AROUND
He pulled up his bowlers. Parvinder Awana wanted a fielder at deep third man and one inside the circle at mid-off. Virat didn’t agree, guessing that a set Abhishek Nayar won’t edge it that far behind; he brought the third man up and pushed back mid-off. He was proved right.
On another instance, he wanted a fielder to move wider, but when the player questioned it, Virat gestured, pointing to himself as if to say that he was the man in command. A few more such instances happened and there was a phase when he made changes rather too frequently. Things though went out of control as Nayar built partnerships to set India Blue on the way to a big score.
However, the two players who were immune to his gesticulating were Sehwag and Nehra. Sehwag, standing at cover, failed to back up a throw once and Virat had to make a dash from mid-off to the boundary to do that.
RED-FACED
It appeared Sehwag was perhaps letting his younger team mate do the hard work, but he then apologised for his fielding lapse.
Left-arm pacer Nehra leaked runs, and was also smashed for two sixes in an over, but Virat did not interrupt unlike in the case of others, swallowing his anger.
But emotions had to show somewhere. In a bid to break a partnership, he brought himself on. Things went fine till the last ball, which was hit, very much within reach, past Sehwag and Sumit Narwal for four.
Kohli snatched the cap from the umpire, and though he didn’t hurl any abuse, the displeasure was evident. Sehwag, likely to lead Delhi in the winter when Kohli is on India duty, did set the field on a couple of occasions though he largely kept to himself.