Are Virat Kohli’s aggressive men falling prey to their own mistakes & ‘templates’?

Cricket, Test cricket to be specific is the best leveller in this beautiful game. After a thunderous win at the home of Cricket; Lord’s where a dominant and aggressive India bundled out a hapless English batting line up under fifty overs. 

Head to the next Test at Leeds and everything falls apart. India’s batting lineup just collapsed and the end result doesn’t make for great reading: Lost by an innings and 78 runs. What needs to be analyzed and discussed more is was the drubbing at the Adelaide Oval(36 all out) and now at Leeds(78 all out) just freak incidents or is it self induced in a way? 

Fragility of India’s middle-order has been an ongoing issue

                                        India's middle order really need to step up

Ever since the ICC World Test Championship started in 2019, India’s batting has been their biggest concern. Couple of reasons why it hasn’t been highlighted as much it should have is the fact that despite some huge collapses, the team has fought back and won the series magnificently: 

The win Down Under & the home series win against England is a classic example. And one classic parameter to judge if a batting line up is doing well or not is too look at the statistics. And the numbers actually look good for this current Indian batting lineup since 2019. Rohit Sharma averages 60.77, Virat Kohli( 42.45), Ajinkya Rahane( 42.22), Cheteshwar Pujara(28.03) is an exception to a large extent as his value as someone who can dent an opposition with rigid defense may not reflect in averages & runs alone. 

So the Indian team management could be well in their right to back these players. As they have since 2019 had some shocking performances but as a batting unit have somehow managed to come back stronger. Since this ongoing series hangs in the balance, India’s top five batsmen need to fire as an unit; something that’s not happened in a while(even though overall win % wont give that picture). 

  Virat Kohli’s template: Is it proving to be detrimental for India?

One of Virat Kohli’s most admirable qualities as a skipper is the fact that he is extremely aggressive on the field which rubs on the other players. The rise of Mohammed Siraj who was getting copped for leaking runs at will for RCB in the IPL to what he has become off late is an amazing story! 

Also, Virat doesn’t try to hide away from his team’s mistakes. He openly admitted in the post match conference post the third Test that the middle order just couldn’t capitalize on the fantastic start provided by the openers( India capitulated from 217-2 to 278 all out). 

While its admirable that a captain or leader owns up to his team’s follies, the question one needs to be asked is are these mistakes something which could have been avoided? Yes, on a given day the opposition could just be too good, and one must appreciate that and move on. 

But Kohli’s template as a skipper in recent times especially in Test Cricket to constantly question Pujara’s intent, a strong backing of Rahane & Pant despite both of them producing in recent time, one good innings a series and the most recent addition to his template ; dropping the best off-spinner going around the world R Ashwin in order to boost the batting as Ravindra Jadeja brings in a better package overall along with the four bowlers. 

  Can common sense prevail, finally?

Cricket Analysts, fans, experts all have one question in their minds: Why would you drop the world’s best spinner going around to bolster the fast bowling stocks? R Ashwin is easily in his best bowling form off late. 

His purple patch’s best example would be how he strategically worked out Steven Smith’s weakness to the ball that cramps him up so magnificently! That troubled Smith a lot and other bowlers capitalized on that aspect well. So not only are India missing out on R Ashiwn’s astute thinking & leadership skills, they are missing out on not utilizing a bowler at the peak of his prowess. 

And incase there is a doubt that Ashwin cant offer too much with the bat, it sadly means India is so doubtful of their current batting lineup that they are depending on a #8 to bail them out. That certainly doesn't make sense. 

If the only parameter to leave out R Ashwin in the first Three Tests was an overall package; Ravindra Jadeja offers more is something I cant personally accept. On conditions that don’t do a lot for spin, with England having 4-5 left handers in their team, it’s common sense to play your front-line off spinner and make the spinner a wicket taking force, rather than just hold an end up & leave it to the fast bowlers to do all the work of getting the wickets. 

The simple point is we are heading into the flattest surfaces next; The Oval & Old Trafford, Manchester. And considering the ball won’t move around or wobble too much, can common sense prevail finally and could we have three pacers: Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah & Mohammed Siraj supported by the spinners; R Ashwin & Ravindra Jadeja?

India have bounced back from such situations earlier; which is good & bad

As I had mentioned earlier in this article, coming back from a thumping defeat is nothing new to this fiery, confident team under Virat’s captaincy. So the afterglow of such a result usually pumps up this team, they almost function and play well when the chips are down. Thats an amazing quality for any team to have especially when you tour overseas. 

But the concern still lies with the fact that #3 to #7 aren't doing enough and it has been the case for a long time, barring the occasional hundred by Ajinkya Rahane at the MCG or Rishabh Pant’s brilliance at the Gabba. Plus with the skipper who is one run away from crossing 23,000 runs milestone in International Cricket going through a torrid run since 2020 where he averages 23.15 it only compounds matters. 

Kohli likes to back his men and I don’t see a Rahane or a Pant getting dropped from the Oval Test although their batting numbers may suggest so. In all probability, despite knowing that the pitch could get better and offer more for the batsmen we could see Shardul Thakur replacing a jaded Ishant Sharma for the fourth Test. 

As that goes in complete sync with the ‘template’ of playing four seamers plus this team management has clearly forgotten R Ashwin’s brilliant match winning century in the second Test at the Chepauk on a rank turner where most of the batsmen on both sides looked completely out of sorts. 

So to consider Thakur a better batsman than Ashwin just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. To wrap this up, for the next game, for all you know we could even see the same playing X1 for India. Or finally, what many people want could happen; which is to see R Ashiwn get his rightful spot in this team as a bowling all-rounder. 

England would be on cloud nine after their exploits at Leeds and India are searching for lot of answers. It certainly is a mouth-watering prospect to see how well this Indian team known for strong fight-backs can comeback into this series; with or without R Ashwin in the playing X1.