We are in Virat Kohli’s mind: Hayden
Matthew Hayden feels that the Australian team has managed to get into Virat Kohli’s and the whole country’s mind due to the huge build-up to the Test series. The Indian skipper has also been criticised by Mark Waugh for failing to deliver in Bengaluru what he had asked of his team – more intent.
Kohli’s poor run in the series continued as he was dismissed for 12 in the first innings of the second Test in Bengaluru. Former Australian opener Hayden said that the visitors have managed to get into Kohli’s head.
“We (Australia) are in Virat’s mind. We’re in the whole country’s mind, actually, because (there) was such a huge build up to this series," Hayden was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
Their board has asked them to play a lot of cricket and once you get behind the momentum of the game it’s often hard to claw back.
Hayden
“(India) have played a lot of Test match cricket up to this point but this is the series they really wanted to dominate and they’re just not getting their way currently.
"I’m not saying they can’t claw back. It’s taken India by surprise in the first game just how diabolical that surface was in Pune and this one as well, which is traditionally such a good batting track.
“It’s been a pretty long summer for India, so far. Their board has asked them to play a lot of cricket and once you get behind the momentum of the game it’s often hard to claw back.”
Waugh, meanwhile, attributed Kohli’s failure in Bengaluru to a “brain fade”.
“That’s a brain fade. I know the ball before bounced and hit him on the thigh-pad and he’s a bit worried about those two men on the leg side, but that’s bread-and-butter for an Indian batsman, a class player. You just tuck that off the hip. It was very un-Kohli like. He made a point of saying ‘we need to play with much more intent in this game’ but he’s been the prime example of not actually doing that,” Waugh told Australia’s Fox News.