Bullish Kohli justifies overlooking Kuldeep Yadav, backs Rahane as 'important Test batsman'

India were handed a massive drubbing in the opening Test of the four-match Test series against England in Chennai, but for the skipper Virat Kohli, it was just a game where they failed to execute their plans. He downplayed the magnitude of their first loss at home in four years and appeared bullish on the prospect of a comeback in the series from his side which he said has been doing great things in the recent past.

The team selection, especially picking the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in the place of Kuldeep Yadav who has been warming the bench for a very long period of time raised many questions about the consistency in decisions over team selection.

Kuldeep last played a Test match against Australia in 2019 where he picked up a five-wicket haul at the SCG and his performance earned high praise from the head coach Ravi Shastri who called him the number one spinner in overseas conditions. Two years down the line, Kuldeep can’t find a place in the team even in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja or both Jadeja and Ashwin (in Brisbane).

Kohli was asked whether he considered in the hindsight, playing Nadeem who could not provide control to him and leaked too many runs from one end over Kuldeep who could have been more lethal in terms of wicket-taking options was a mistake.

Kohli freed himself and the team management from any regret of preferring Naddem over Kuldeep and he asserted that the team always knew the combination it wants to play with and that the result of the first Test won’t make much difference in the thought process of the team.

"Not really, not at all. When you playing two off-spinners, Kuldeep becomes more or less same kind of spinner taking the ball away. We were quite clear on what we wanted to play, what combination we wanted to play. There are no regrets whatsoever on that decision. Moving forward, we will think of combinations, which brings us variety as a bowling attack. And not one dimensional, turning away from the bat. These things are very important,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference.

The onus of saving the game was on the Indian batsmen on the fifth day but the lack of runs from the senior players such as Rahane, and Rohit along with a rare failure for Pujara in terms of staying st the crease made the case very weak for the hosts on the fifth-day pitch.

His deputy Rahane got a lot of flakes for getting out cheaply on the fifth day and failing in yet another home Test match. Rahane was bowled neck and crop by James Anderson for a two-ball-duck and social media was flooded with people questioning his place in the Indian Test team, especially at home.

Kohli was belligerent in his defence of Rahane and rated him along with Pujara as the mainstays of the Indian Test team. He said that the team has trusted the qualities of Rahane and he has been an impact player for the side in the past in tough conditions. Kohli was unapologetic about the infinite backings Rahane has received from the team management over the last three-four years even while the Rahane has not been able to put brilliant performances on a consistent basis.

"Ajinkya Rahane is, I have said this many times in the past as well, along with Cheteshwar Pujara is our most important Test batsman and he is going to continue to be. We believe in his abilities, we have believed in his abilities for a long time now. He is an impact player,” Kohli added.

He reminded that Rahane stood up tall to lead the Indian batting order in the Boxing Day Test against Australia with a fighting hundred which eventually turned out to be a turning point of the series.

"In the MCG Test, he stood up and scored a hundred for his team when we wanted it the most. You can look at the number of innings and what happens from there on, the reality of the situation is we won the series in Australia,” Kohli further said.

“And here, there is just one test, two innings. Today, yes, you can put that innings aside. In the first innings, he wanted to score a boundary. It was a brilliant catch by Joe Root that got rid of him. If that had gone for a boundary and he had scored runs, we are not having this conversation.”

Kohli was asked how he could manage to bat so confidently and comfortably against the English bowlers in the second innings when his teammates struggled to cope up with the pitch conditions.

He picked up a comment about Gill’s batting where it was said that the batsman from Punjab struggled in the second innings. Kohli has always been appreciative of Gill’s batting abilities and he did not let the opportunity of appreciating the class of Gill go by this time either. He asserted that the right-hander was the best batsman for Indian in this Test match.

The second Test of the series is slated to be played at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai only and will begin on February 13. Kohli will be looking to bounce back strongly from this defeat and he has expressed full confidence on his teammates that they will be put this defeat behind them quickly.

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Joe Root thanks fans for their support after a sensational Test win

England skipper Joe Root expressed his delight after England registered a comprehensive victory against India in the opening Test of the 4-match rubber. Taking to his Twitter handle, the England captain shared a video to thank the English fans for their support. “Hi guys, thanks for your support once again, brilliant win, brilliant team performance. Full of confidence going into the rest of the series, hope you have enjoyed as much as we have, and thank you again, Cheers,” he said. England came into the series after annihilating Sri Lanka. However, beating India in India is always a humungous task especially after what transpired in the historic tour Down Under. Not many of the cricketing pundits gave England a chance coming into the series but they proved everyone wrong after dominating India for the course of 5 days. On a personal front, the Test match belonged to the English skipper. Root set the tone for the sensational victory with a magical knock of 218 in the first innings. He stood tall and played an instrumental role in England posting a huge first-innings total. They secured a huge lead courtesy some impressive bowling performances in the first essay. In the second innings chasing a target of 420, the England duo of Jack Leach and James Anderson tormented the star-studded Indian batting line-up skittling them out for a meagre 192, thus handing England a huge 227 runs victory.

Anderson's mastery, Leach's discipline help England breach India's fortress in Chennai

At the start of the fifth and final day of the first Test of the series, the hosts India had a huge task of combatting the English bowling line up for 98 overs, and in the end, the task proved to be too big, even for the power-packed Indian batting line up comprising Chetehswar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane. England handed India their first Test defeat at home in four years by a huge margin of 227 runs and more than the loss, the manner in which they were outplayed by the tourists in every department of the game will be hurting for the hosts. India had to own the first session of the day as they had already lost Rohit Sharma late on the fourth day, and their hopes averting defeat were hinging on the shoulders of Pujara while Gill was expected to play as per the situation of the game. Pujara was to be the main man if India were to salvage a draw in the Test and for England the prime target. Joe Root was banking on his spin twin to do a lot of damage and started the proceedings with the left-arm spinner Leach from the one end. Leach had got the better of Rohit with a peach that turned away from the line of the right-hander’s middle stump, and he produced yet another jaffa to get the most-prized scalp of Pujara. Pujara was guilty of closing the face of his bat against a delivery that appeared to be going down the leg side before turned sharply and took the splice of his bat. England were cock-a-hoop at the sight of Pujara’s departure from the pitch as it opened up the game from both the ends, but the threat of Virat Kohli remained as the Indian skipper joined a fluent Shubman Gill at the crease. Gill was showing all of his class and exuberance and most importantly for both him and Kohli at the other end, he did not allow either Leach or Bess to settle down in their line of attack. He was quick on his feet whenever spinners tossed the ball up while rocked back to the backfoot whenever he got the slight margin of that luxury and eliminated the threat of getting bowled or beaten in the manner Pujara or Rohit got out. For a brief period of time, both him and Kohli were looking to dig in for big innings, but Root was proactive to bring James Anderson back into the attack to see if the veteran was finding any help in the air and off the pitch to replace Bess who was offering run-scoring opportunities on a platter to Kohli and Gill Root was aware of the help Ishant and Bumrah got on the fourth day and expected Anderson to play a similar role to what Indian pacers played for the hosts on the previous day. Anderson looked toothless in the first innings, and he is too good a bowler to look ordinary for a long period of time, and he decided to put his hands up when it mattered the most for the England side. In the very first over of his spell, he breached the defence of Shubman Gill with a one that swung in the air. Gill the batsman looks pure in his technique but has a trigger movement back and across in his crease, and Anderson, with all the experience of 600 Test wickets was smart enough to push the length of his delivery further up and found out the gap between Gill’s pad and bat. Anderson is a master of reverse swing and with Gill’s dismissal he was able to get it going in Chennai and the next man in, Ajinkya Rahane was worried about prodding forward to his balls in view of sharp inswing. He tentatively left the first ball that went away in the air, while getting flummoxed on the next ball and was left only on the mercy of umpire Nitin Menon who found him outside the line of the off-stump. Anderson was in the relentless mood and it turned out a nightmare for Rahane as the right-hander could not quite handle the extravagant movement inside towards him. Two wickets in an over and India’s hopes of surviving the final day were all but squashed in the span of an over by Anderson. The wonder-boy for India in the last few games, Rishabh Pant who had resurrected the team in one crisis to another had one more to deal with, but it was not to be his day as Anderson was too wily for him. An off-cutter from around the wicket found Pant playing early towards the leg side and Root was more than delighted to pouch the catch at the cover position. Anderson finished his spell with his figure reading 5-3-6-3 and the three wickets of Gill, Rahane and Pant broke the backbone of the Indian batting order and any chance of their survival in the Test. At the other end, Virat Kohli was playing after a long time but appeared to be batting on a different pitch to his teammates on the final day as he was watchful and looked under control against almost all the bowlers. He was watching the ball like a hawk and playing it late from the backfoot against spinners, while against Anderson, he was out of the crease to negate the reverse swing that his most famous nemesis was extracting in the air. He had a zero false shot percentage against Anderson who was whopping the ball round compared to 34 per cent by his teammates. The next man in after Pant’s dismissal was Washington Sundar who has been impressing with every opportunity with the bat in his hands. He was the second-best batsman for India in terms of run scored in the first innings, but his heroics was limited to in the second innings by an accurate Jack Leach who looked on a mission reem himself after the rumbling he got at the hands of Pant on the third day. Defending 98 0vers on the final day was anyway a tough task, and the first session was touted to be very crucial for both the side. England emerged as the clear winner as India were left with only Kohli and Ashwin who could pose a serious challenge to the tourists on a fifth-day pitch. Leach showed that there was enough in him to keep challenging the batsmen every now and then and he found the edge of Ashwin’s bat once more in the game. With Ashwin gone back to the pavilion, the writing was on the wall for the hosts, and it was just certified when Ben Stokes who has been known for making things happen for England got through the strong defence of Kohli. The ball did not bounce enough for Kohli to even touch the lower part of his bat. Kohli was found shortly after batting with so much control, but the wicket established England’s perfect planning and spotting the area of pitch they had to target and then finally executing more than Kohli’s failure at that moment. Leach finished with a four-wicket haul while Anderson took three wickets in that match-winning spell and England went 1-0 up in the series leaving a lot at stake for the hosts in the remaining three Tests of the series. England were coming off from a triumphant series in Sri Lanka while India too were buoyant after historic series win in Australia, but the loss in Chennai will force the hosts to ask some tough questions about the team selection and lack of penetration in the bowling department which was exposed on a flat surface on the first two days of this Test. Joe Root was awarded the man of the match for his splendid double century in the first innings that set up the game for the tourists and put a lot of pressure on the host batting line up. Experts and fans were not giving the chance to win any game on this tour, but their win in Chennai has heated up the contest in the series going forward. They have set the tempo and have put the onus of playing well and bouncing back on India who started and still are the favourites to win the series.

CSA seek redressal from ICC following cancellation of Australia tour

Cricket South Africa are not pleased with Australia’s decision to postpone their tour to the Rainbow Nation and have written to the International Cricket Council (ICC) seeking the governing body for redressal following the visitor's withdrawal at the very last moment. As per the original schedule, Australia were slated to tour South Africa for a three-match Test series on February 2021 but their withdrawal has meant huge financial consequences for the home cricket board who have been under turbulent wanters in the past couple of years. On the advice of medical experts, Cricket Australia made the decision to visit South Africa despite the home team’s government doing its best to keep COVID in check. Cricket South Africa further added that they felt hard done by Australia especially after they complied with all the safety demands made by the touring country. However, they were not even consulted before Cricket Australia decided to cancel their tour. “There’s got to be some understanding of how we manage the impact to less-wealthy nations,” Stavros Nicolaou, the chairman of CSA’s interim board was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. “Unilateral decisions of this nature are punitive to less-wealthy cricket-playing nations and there has to be some discussion around redress.” Meanwhile, Australia had also pulled out of tours against West Indies, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and New Zealand after the pandemic. However, they played against England away from home and against India in a historic series at home. CA chief Nicky Hockley stated last week that he backed the decision to postpone the South Africa tour. “Weight of medical advice and our duty of care to players and staff meant we were really left with no alternative,” he said.

Worrying pattern for Rahane the batsman, as Rahane the leader grows in reputation

That Cricket is a great leveller must have been said on an uncountable number of times, and it is one of the most famous cliches of the game. For India’s Ajinkya Rahane, the cliche must have now become a matter of fact even before the memories of a historic triumph in Australia are yet to blur out of fans and experts’ vision. He was hailed for making a second-string Indian team look like a bunch of legends who could dare to take down Australian at the own den, but now finds himself in the ire of fans as India are battling hard on the fifth day of the first Test in Chennai. The fortunes could not have been starker for Rahane who found himself in mid of storm that swept Indian team in both the innings. On the fifth day of the Test, Rahane walked out to face an on-fire James Anderson who had just castled Shubman Gill who, like in the past in his short career, was playing like a dream. He could not pick Anderson’s line of attack and his swing as the first ball he faced swung away from him, followed by sharp inswing ball towards his pad. He was caught rooted to the crease, but umpire Nitin Menon gifted him a reprieve. The DRS from England showed it was a marginal call and it could have gone either way. A grumpy Anderson made sure he did not need Menon’s help on the next ball to see the back of Rahane as he cut Rahane into half and sent the stumps cartwheeling in a manner that left all including umpire Menon in a sense of awe. In the first innings as well, Rahane walked to bat when the off-spinner Dominic Bess was in the middle of an excellent spell and had got the better of Kohli with a ball that drew Kohli forward outside the line of off stump. There too he was caught napping and was playing from the crease, and it needed Pujara to remind him that the off-spinner was able to get some purchase off the pitch. On cue, Rahane tried to leave the crease and denying Bess with the chance of finding him inside the crease and poking in nervousness, but a lofted drive after excellent footwork found Joe Root at the cover and the innings was gone even before he could be settled down. It was an unplayable pitch, and hence his eagerness to not allowing Bess a look in begged a question that if he trusts his game or not, and if one can’t trust his game on as flat a pitch as the Chepauk, there must be things working horribly wrong between his two ears. In both the innings, he was dismissed as soon as he came onto the field, and to be fair to him, the benefit of the doubt can be given to India’s vice-captain. But, while the dismissals in both the innings in the first Test match can be attributed to bad luck and the brilliance of James Anderson, it’s not new for Rahane to be found wanting at the start of the innings, and his tentativeness at the crease has affected him for the entire length of his career, more so on Indian pitches, barring few series where he has looked like the batsmen he augured after the 2013-14 overseas cycle. Rahane was the pinnacle of India’s batting in the 2013-14 overseas cycle and after scoring runs all across the world, the fans and he himself would have expected to make the most of coming back to Indian pitches where he had to counter fewer threats than in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, but his numbers for some reasons started to dwindle after returning to India. Ironically, it was the home series against England five years back that started the unravelling of Rahane, the prolific batsman, and there are no definite signs that suggest he is coming back to his pre-2016 form. To make the matter worse for him, his overseas numbers which people expected to get better on the second tour was very dsappointing and the right-hander could not quite manage to rediscover his mojo to put repetitively good performances like his captain Virat Kohli does. He struggled in New Zealand, and the misery was deepening in England before he showed brilliance with a sparkling 81 against the bowling line up comprising Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes at Trent Bridge. The team management would have had a sigh of relief looking at him scoring runs through gorgeous drives through the offside, and they must have expected that the Rahane of old was back and that he will turn things around in the series. The period of joy was very short as he returned the scores of 11, 51, 0, 37 in the next four innings in the series which shows he did not make the great use of his hard-earned form. The series ended with him finding a bit of spark in the middle of average batting performances. It has been a troubling pattern for Rahane in the recent past and it could well be seen in his scores after the marvellous hundred in the second Test against Australia in Melbourne. He battled hard and hard to earn a century and won India the game, but failed to capitalise on his form in the following Tests in Sydney and Brisbane. His scores in the four innings following the unbeaten 27 in the second innings of triumphant MCG Test read 22, 4, 27, and 24 and it reestablishes the narrative about him that he has now been reduced to a batsman capable of producing brilliance only once in a while, rather than owing a season or series after regaining batting form. What will disappoint him more is the fact that he had the pitch going in his favour on the third day of the Test against England, and there were no demons on the pitch to unsettled the mental aspect of his game. It was more a case of him trying to find demons and doing more than required to combat the threat only he could see coming and gave away his wicket. The home series against South Africa in 2019 was the only series that saw him maintaining his form and scoring a good amount of runs one after another after a long time, but the first Test against England has once again landed him in a spot of bother. What he achieved in Australia will never be forgotten, but that will not assure him of a place in Test XI and save him from facing the ire of fans as he will be the first one to ask himself some tough questions about his mindset and technique that how can he throw so many opportunities to pile on big runs and settle the debate around his place in the team. Rahane the batsman needs to go big and let his bat do all the talking to cement and justify all the plaudits Rahane got after the highs in Australia. Fans and experts called him the chief architect who turned things around for India after the historic low of 36 in Adelaide, and Rahane has the responsibility for both him and the team to establish that the century was not a fluke and that it was one of the many innings he is capable to play for India with the bat. Make no mistake, he can come back stronger and put a big one in the second Test, but India need him more from him than just pieces of periodic brilliance and that only can justify the respect he gets from the team management.