Kohli's absence has robbed the finish of its sheen
In many ways, Virat Kohli missing the decider against Australia with an injury has robbed the finish to the high-profile series of its sheen, given the verbal exchanges, Steven Smith’s “brain fade” and a leading Australian newspaper describing Kohli as the “Donald Trump of world sport.”
Ajinkya Rahane stands in as the captain at Dharamsala with the four-match series between the world’s two top-ranked Test sides level at 1-1. The Mumbaikar showed solid approach in his first Test as skipper but he is no Kohli, and no matter how this match ends, one will never know what it would have been had the in-your-face persona of Kohli been out in the middle at the picturesque venue’s maiden Test.
India
Personalities add to the drama in the sport, and this series has had a lot to do with the opposite captains. Kohli and Smith are both regarded as the two top Test batsmen in contemporary cricket and inspiring leaders.
Smith has clearly gone one-up over Kohli in this face-off with three stunning centuries including the 111 today in a series that none gave the visitors a chance before India shocked the cricket world by providing a pitch of unpredictable bounce and turn in the opener in Pune that turned the toss into a lottery and finished with the home side losing in under three days.
Until then India had won eight out of nine Tests in an undefeated home season, and such had been their domination that former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, who has travelled to India on six Test tours, told Cricket Australia website ahead of this series: “As long as they can find a way to be competitive in the Test series, even if we don’t win, I don’t think it would be that big of a deal.”
Five months ago, Smith’s Australia had been in tatters after losing five straight Tests – 3-0 in Sri Lanka and two at home to South Africa.
“I’m embarrassed to be sitting here to be perfectly honest with you,” Smith had said after losing the home Test series to South Africa. “We are not being resilient, we are not willing to tough it out and get through tough periods and the spend out there things get easier,” he added.
Smith then helped fashion a stunning turnaround in the side’s fortunes as they snapped the losing streak in the third and final Test against South Africa in Adelaide, and Smith then scored two centuries and two fifties in the 3-0 rout of Pakistan at home.
And now, the Aussies have certainly shown tremendous resilience in the difficult conditions in India.
Kohli, on the other hand, has 46 runs to show from five innings, and this is certainly going to rankle him given his fantastic home season and not to forget the stunning record of a double hundred each in four successive Test series.
The dip in batting form notwithstanding, Kohli led inspiringly to square the series in Bengaluru, and among the other positives was his ability to motivate the rest of the batting unit to pull its weight.
It is a happy thought that India’s batting is not solely dependent on the brilliance of Kohli with the team scheduled to go on tough tours of South Africa, England and Australia in 2018-19. India
The very fact that Australia took the series down to the wire is a reality check for India, worth mulling over for Kohli & Co. before the overseas Test challenge begins.
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