IND vs NZ | Anything in region of 220-230 would have made it different, feels Virat Kohli
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Virat Kohli has stated that another 60-70 runs in the first innings would have kept things on an even position and India could have made a comeback to put New Zealand under pressure. Kohli has also added that Prithvi Shaw has just played one game away from home and will learn things sooner.
There were heavy build-up for the India-New Zealand series ahead of the tour and how it was the best chance for the Indian side to have their second series win on the Kiwi land, having won their first series 52 years ago on the back of a Farookh Engineer masterclass. However, New Zealand turned the table straight away, putting India under pressure from the first ball of the game. Kohli believes that the batsmen could have been more responsible in the first innings as anything more than 220-230 would have kept things balanced.
"Toss turned out to be very important. As a batting unit we take pride in being competitive, but we weren't. Even scoring 220-230 would've been good. That first innings put us behind and then the lead put us under more pressure," Kohli said at the post-match presentation, reported ESPNCricinfo.
Indian bowlers, who have been a revelation in the last couple of years, failed to encash on the opportunity despite downing the hosts to 225/7 in the first innings. The trio of Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson and Trent Boult partnered with Colin de Grandhomme to add another 123 runs for the last three wickets as India conceded a huge 183-run lead in the first innings. However, the Indian skipper calls for patience and the bowlers were not as happy with their bowling performance.
"The bowlers toiled well, as a bowling group we've taken pride in being competitive. Till the first seven NZ wickets, we were really good. Wanted to restrict the lead to under 100, but the last runs from their batsmen made things difficult. But bowlers can still be more disciplined, they were not as happy with their bowling performance," the 30-year-old added.
While Mayank Agarwal was stoic in his approach - scoring 34 and 58 in both innings of the Test match - Prithvi Shaw, who was selected ahead of Shubman Gill for the first Test, was not impressive at all. He batted with a free-flowing head but that was limited for a few overs, with the Mumbaikar playing one shot too many. But Kohli said that for a player like Shaw, who played only one away Test, he can only grow from now.
"You don't want to be too hard on guys like Shaw. He's played just 2 overseas Tests. He will figure a way, he will find a way to score runs. Mayank applied himself well, and he's the only other person apart from Rahane who got us any momentum with the bat. Our strength is to put big scores for our bowlers to bowl at, and that was missing in this match," Kohli concluded.
