In terms of individual performances, the first Test match of India’s tour of Australia in 2014/15, was one of the best shows former team India skipper Virat Kohli had ever put up on a Cricket field.
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While the aggressive mindset and the audacity to go for the ‘win or nothing attitude’ was nothing short of praiseworthy, to do it with while keeping the mind sane and before a crowd desperately wishing to see him fail, was otherworldly.
Leading the side in Adelaide in the absence of the regular skipper MS Dhoni who was rested, Kohli had taken the mantle upon himself to go for the win with India requiring 364 runs for victory in the minimum of 98 Overs to be bowled on the final day of the Test.
Kohli, who was already high-in-confidence after having scored a marvelous century – 115 off 184 deliveries, during the first innings, had pre-decided at the end of Day 4 that the team would not bother playing for the Draw, but will go for a win even if ultimately they go on to lose the Test.
Virat Kohli brushed aside MS Dhoni’s suggestion to go for a draw
In his book – ‘COACHING BEYOND: My Days with the Indian Cricket Team‘, the then fielding coach of the Indian Cricket Team, R Sridhar, has revealed a fantastic insight on the discussion Kohli and MS Dhoni had the previous day regarding the fifth day approach.
A rational and level-headed person that he is, MS Dhoni took the seat next to Kohli during the bus ride back to the hotel and suggested him to reconsider his decision to go for the win. Without doubting on Kohli’s ability, Dhoni remarked that while the decision to play positive Cricket is all fine and good, he (Kohli) would also need to ascertain whether or not the rest of the batting line-up is strong enough to score 360-odd runs on the final Day of the Test.
As per Sridhar, while Kohli agreed with what his skipper had to suggest, he was adamant that his approach was the only way forward, and exclaimed, “Only if we try, we can know na? Whether we can do it or not. We have not chased 360 on the last day of a Test match ever before because we haven’t yet tried to do that. Let us try and give it a shot. Unless we try how will we know how good we are.”
India lose the Test by 48 runs
On the back of another century – 141 off 175 deliveries, during the second innings as well, Kohli was well on course to single-handedly accomplish the unprecedented.
However, with 8 wickets in hand and 159 runs required in the final session of the Test off 37 Overs, the line-up suffered an unfortunate collapse losing all the remaining wickets while adding mere 73 runs to the scoreboard.
