India vs England: Adelaide, Centurion, Edgbaston, venues, teams change but Virat Kohli’s lone battles remain constant

Ben Stokes to Hardik Pandya, outside off, Pandya nicks it straight to Alastair Cook at first slip. Cook makes no mistake this time, finishes the catch clean and it’s all over at Edgbaston.

The crowd breaks into a joyous roar. English skipper with hands in the air comes running celebrating and Stokes is pounced on by his teammates. England goes 1-0 up against one man, Virat Kohli.

Yes, cricket is a team game and it’ll be harsh to ignore Indian bowlers’ effort and just acknowledge Kohli here. But, for once if we keep the bowling department aside and just pinpoint India’s batting, you’ll only find one name all over – Kohli.

The Indian captain fought a lone battle till he could. In both the innings, he was ditched by his own men. While he scored a total of 200 runs in the Test, the rest of the Indian batsmen managed to put together only 14 runs more than that one man.

The difference between India’s top two best scores will bring in a better perspective of how pathetic the batters of World No. 1 team performed in the first Test of the ongoing five-Test series against England: after Kohli’s 149 in the first innings, India’s second best individual score came only on the final day when Pandya scored 31 off 61 balls.

This was not the first time when the Indian batmen had left Kohli alone to battle out in a game and expected their best man to always come back with a positive result. They certainly tend to forget that cricket is a team game and one-man shows don’t always give you the favourable results.

Kohli’s maiden Test ton in England, which came in the first innings at Edgbaston, took India close to England’s target of 287. In the same innings, Shikhar Dhawan’s 26 remained the second best score for India before their innings ended at 274 all out. Despite the knock being so crucial, Kohli did not rate it as the most special one.

“Since Adelaide still remains very special to me, this knock will come second to it. It was second innings and we were chasing and I had total clarity that we were going for the target, not once did I think that we were not. So, that was a beautiful zone to be in,” Kohli had said in an interview post his 149.

PC: AFP

Going four years back, when India toured Australia for a four-Test series, the first match was played at Adelaide. It was an emotional fixture for both the sides. While Australia were battling a tough phase following the demise of their close teammate Philip Hughes, India were on a mission of turning tables around in that part of the world.

India’s previous Test win Down Under was then six years old. Post that, India had lost four and drew one Test. Going into the Adelaide Test in 2014, India were without their regular skipper MS Dhoni and the world was about to witness a spectacular example of a captain’s knock. While Kohli had previously led in the white-ball game, the Adelaide Test was his first in the longer format.

Batting first, Australia posted a massive total of 517 runs declared, courtesy of centuries from David Warner, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith. In reply to that, Kohli, scored a ton, received support from a few others and which is why India managed to go as close as 444 runs before the end of their innings.

Australia set India a target of 364 runs thinking it was more than enough to defend against the Indian side. Had Kohli, who scored a century during the chase too, received some support again from his men, Australia would have regretted declaring their innings so soon.

Just like England’s situation at Edgbaston on Saturday, Australia too were in the same frame of mind of dismissing Kohli on the final day of the Adelaide Test and that would be it. Meanwhile, the stand-in skipper Kohli was in no mood to give up; he fought the battle alone, went for his timely shots before his knock of 141 off 175 balls ended in the 82nd over. He already had accumulated 16 fours and a six and that showed he did not hold himself back in an attempt to just take a draw but intentions of aiming for a win were crystal clear.

Earlier this year, when India toured South Africa, that’s when they began their crucial away season in after a long home run. The first Test was lost purely by a poor batting performance even when they had to chase a mere target of 208 runs. Including Kohli, everyone cheaply threw away their wickets against the likes of young pacers like Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi.

However, in the second Test which was at Centurion, Kohli pulled up his socks and scored an excellent century in the first innings. In India’s total of 307, 153 runs belonged to the Indian captain and the next best figures were of Murali Vijay who scored 46 off 126 balls. In the final innings, during India’s chase of 287 runs, the likes of Pujara, KL Rahul, Vijay once again disappointed and with Kohli’s failure, India lost a great opportunity to equalise the series.

If you look at Pujara, Dhawan and Vijay’s averages since India’s home season in 2016, there is a massive dip from the time when India began their tours outside sub-continent. While Dhawan made the most out of India’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2017, Pujara cashed in during India’s tour of West Indies in 2016 followed by the long home season where India hosted the likes of New Zealand, England, Australia and Sri Lanka.

But, their numbers have drastically come down since India’s tour of South Africa in March. In that series, Kohli was the lone centurion and topped the runs chart with 286 runs at an average of 47.66 followed by South Africans AB de Villiers and Dean Elgar. Meanwhile, Vijay averaged 17, Pujara 16.66 and Dhawan and Rahane who played just one Test averaged 16 and 28.50 respectively.

In India, they are confortable on the flat tracks. But, as soon as the ball shows some movement, the Indian batsmen begin to struggle. Even Kohli initially did. One cannot forget his 13.40 average during the 2014 England tour.

But he has learnt from those mistakes and the Edgbaston Test was the testimony to that.

For how many times Kohli will have to swallow his pride, accept defeat and just move on?

His expressions, seriousness and intent on his face showed how badly he wanted to win this Test. A leading cricket website summed up his situation aptly before the final day, “Kohli refuses to lose the Edgbaston Test.”

Eventually, he had to. He was let down by his batters, once again.