Tough lessons on first day in office
ADELAIDE: He was super-charged and super-confident, determined to make his captaincy debut special. There was intense scrutiny over Virat Kohli’s first day in office. Although he had led the U-19 team to triumph, he was cutting his teeth in the big league, in the toughest format where the game can be snatched away in a session, or a dropped chance or a bad tactical move can turn things upside down.
Virat had promised aggression after it became clear that Mahendra Singh Dhoni won’t be able to play in the first Test. And his body language on Tuesday morning, as India took the field, showed he had what it takes to keep his flock motivated. But against a formidable opposition playing at home, it was a huge test. At the end of the day, it showed it was a steep learning curve.
His first big test was against the explosive David Warner. Taking a calculated risk, the first session saw him press his bowlers to keep the left-handed opener quiet. And the tactic he chose was to attack from around the wicket, in the hope that it would cramp Warner from opening his arms, minimising the width on which his batting thrives on.
ATTACK ANGLE
It is always debatable whether one plays to one’s strength or the opponent’s weakness. As it turned out, the hammering Warner gave to Varun Aaron and Mohammed Shami forced Virat to go to his most experienced bowler. Ishant Sharma altered his line of attack and switched to over the wicket. That kept Warner on the back foot, and the angle of uncertainty created consumed the other left-handed opener, Chris Rogers.
Leg spinner Karn Sharma made his Test debut, chosen ahead of R Ashwin, and discovered Test cricket is hard work. He was asked whose idea it was to attack from around the wicket. Karn pointed to the team management without mentioning anyone in particular. As Warner went for boundaries from the word go, the bowlers didn’t seem to get instructions to allow him a single to keep Rogers on strike.
However, Virat placed an interesting field for Shane Watson, who is a candidate for leg before and something that was exposed by England. Virat stuck to that template. For Ishant’s deliveries on Watson’s pads, Virat kept a short midwicket, mid-on and silly mid-on, hoping that Watson would plonk his front across the line and be trapped in front, or be caught at any of these positions.
IDLE FIELDERS
Still, when Aaron was dishing out bouncers to Warner, Virat had two fielders at deep squareleg boundary and fine-leg. Both never really came into action as the bouncers either climbed too much or were tucked away on the off-side.
And when Michael Clarke faced Karn, Virat placed a short cover, silly mid-off and widish extra cover, to curb his off-drives. However, it only succeeded in keeping Clarke in check for a while. And for the seamers, considering Clarke’s dodgy back, Virat had forward short-leg, to latch on to if anything lobbing off his ribcage.
All through the day, Virat did try to pep the players with constant chat but during the post-lunch session, when Clarke and Warner were drilling the attack, he was left grimacing with palms on his chin.
Virat wasn’t sharp with his field placements for spin. When Karn bowled to Warner, he had four men on the leg side, allowing the left-hander to pick easy singles in the square leg area. But he made amends for Steve Smith, posting five fielders on the off-side.
It was a reality check for a young captain; not a great first day, but not all gloom and doom.