rahul1117kumar
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For India playing with three spinners has become the norm in Tests at home. The current three - Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav - have got into a groove over the series against England. All three have had success with both bat and ball, allowing their skipper Virat Kohli to breathe a little easy.
"Hasn't taken much from me at all to motivate them," he says. While the captain is obviously happy with the batting contributions of all three, he has particularly been pleased with the way Jayant Yadav has shaped up. Playing all three spinners also calls for different ways of managing them, their spells, etc.
"Ashwin and Jadeja, whenever we want to plug the runs, are the front-runners for creating that pressure for us every time we require a wicket, along with the fast bowlers trying to get a breakthrough in between," says Kohli, but the newest entrant offers him something different. "He [Jayant] knows his game very well, knows his bowling very well. Has a lot of control as well and he rushes the batsman. If you saw the way he got his wickets in Vizag, he rushed Stokes, in Mohali he rushed Root where he got [him out] LBW. So, he doesn't give much time to react after the ball has pitched and he has those revs on the ball and the strength in his shoulder to keep pitching the ball in the right areas and not give you too much."
These qualities also make him liken Jayant to a former England off-spinner. "I think Graeme Swann was very similar, the way he bowled. The pace control was magnificent without giving the ball too much air and that's why he was so successful. That's what I see with Jayant as well. He has great control with his arm speed and the amount of revs on the ball he has. So as a captain, I know that the third bowler is one against whom the batsman cannot independently go after, and that brings him into the game at any stage whenever you want a wicket, two-three wickets, Jayant is always there on the spot, making things happen and creating doubt in the batsman's head."
Jayant also scored a hundred in the previous Test at Wankhede, adding useful runs with Kohli himself. Those vital contributions from the lower middle-order has allowed India to continue with their five-bowler plan. And like with the ball, it is Ashwin leading the way here as well.
"I think Ashwin has set a benchmark for the other spinners to contribute with the bat as well. Jadeja has come of age with the bat in this series. We saw his knock in Mohali, where he went out with lot of confidence and scored 90 runs for us," said the 28-year-old batsman.
"Jayant Yadav as well. He gets inspired seeing Ashwin, the way he improves his cricket every time. So Jayant always has been a keen learner. He works a lot on his batting as well. All the fast bowlers, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, even Umesh become so much better with the bat and they understand the importance of those runs. Amit Mishra has done very well with the bat. So as a captain, it gives you more freedom to play five batsmen, rather than thinking of another batsman, where your bowlers contribute 120-130 runs every game for you. That's as good as playing another batsman and you get a bowling option as well," added the India captain.
County cricket for Kohli?
While captaincy has become a rather comfortable task, Kohli's batting too has seen him peak through the Tests against England. He leads the run-charts with 640 runs in the series. There is also an obvious gameplan from Kohli in Test cricket to keep scoring along the ground, so much so that a lofted shot of any kind has become his last priority.
"It has been a conscious effort [curbing sixes]. Many times, I felt like I can go after the spinners but I understand that I need to go in that extra hour or two hours for the team. I don't feel the necessity to hit sixes, it is just an excitement of the batsman crossing 150, 160, you feel like expressing yourself. But then I realise that if I am scoring at 3 or 4 an over without trying to hit the boundary, I can rotate strike and do that for the team. I don't necessarily need to take that big risk at any stage and cost the team some momentum. If the management and I have decided to play five batsmen, it obviously makes up my mind to take some more responsibility out there in the middle, rather than doing what I want to do. So, it is about finding ways to still be positive and at the same time, understanding what the team needs. That's the balance you need to strike at the international level, you can't just go there and play your own game and say 'that's the way I play'," says Kohli, who now averages above fifty across all the formats of the game.
"Not really," he answered when a question about him being invincible was asked. "We still understand we got to play a lot of cricket everywhere in the world. It's not only about this one period we are going through. It looks really good because we have come out of transition and immediately started winning games. But I wouldn't take this thing as overconfidence. As I said, it's an ongoing process which needs to be sustained for the next five-seven or eight years for us to become a top quality side and leave a mark on world cricket; maybe known as one of the best teams to have assembled on the field. We want to do it across formats and make that mark for Indian cricket on the world stage. But it requires a lot of persistence and skill, lot of hard work on your fitness and those are the key factors which will decide where we go as a unit and as a team."
A similar philosophy also extends to his personal game. Kohli's weakest batting series as of date remains the tour of England in 2014, where he averaged a meek 13.4 in ten innings. Despite all the success since then, that record continues to be a chip on the shoulder. However, the star batsman admitted that the thought of playing county cricket in England to improve his game had crossed his mind.
"If I have a chance I would love to do that, love to be there, say a month or a month and half, and get used to playing in those conditions, understand how the wickets behave in that particular phase of the year. I think those things matter a lot. Preparation time is something which is very crucial for any side, so yeah, if I have the opportunity to go there [for] a few days before the start, that will be great. I have actually been thinking about it, trying to work out how I can make it happen. Most definitely, if I have the time, I'll go and play there," he said. The move, if it happens, will be another step in Kohli trying to improve his own game in the Test format.
In a different context, Kohli said, "To me all these [Joe Root, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson] are world class players and I have always rated each one of them higher than me in Test cricket especially, because of the way they have performed in the last two or three years. I understood my limitations and never tried to outdo them in the longest format of the game. In shorter formats, yes, I have been doing very well. I understood what I needed to do in the longest format for me to be able to contribute the maximum for my team. That's been my aim. My aim was never to go about Joe or Steve or Kane."
India will tour England next in the summer of 2018. A major speed-breaker for a lot of county aspirants though, has been the emergence of the Indian Premier League (IPL) during the same time. Probably, Kohli could still manage a week or two of county cricket between the end of the IPL and the start of India's tour. If his schedules can be worked out, it will be interesting to see if he actually goes on to set a precedent with that.
Kohli keen to play county cricket before England tour - Cricbuzz
"Hasn't taken much from me at all to motivate them," he says. While the captain is obviously happy with the batting contributions of all three, he has particularly been pleased with the way Jayant Yadav has shaped up. Playing all three spinners also calls for different ways of managing them, their spells, etc.
"Ashwin and Jadeja, whenever we want to plug the runs, are the front-runners for creating that pressure for us every time we require a wicket, along with the fast bowlers trying to get a breakthrough in between," says Kohli, but the newest entrant offers him something different. "He [Jayant] knows his game very well, knows his bowling very well. Has a lot of control as well and he rushes the batsman. If you saw the way he got his wickets in Vizag, he rushed Stokes, in Mohali he rushed Root where he got [him out] LBW. So, he doesn't give much time to react after the ball has pitched and he has those revs on the ball and the strength in his shoulder to keep pitching the ball in the right areas and not give you too much."
These qualities also make him liken Jayant to a former England off-spinner. "I think Graeme Swann was very similar, the way he bowled. The pace control was magnificent without giving the ball too much air and that's why he was so successful. That's what I see with Jayant as well. He has great control with his arm speed and the amount of revs on the ball he has. So as a captain, I know that the third bowler is one against whom the batsman cannot independently go after, and that brings him into the game at any stage whenever you want a wicket, two-three wickets, Jayant is always there on the spot, making things happen and creating doubt in the batsman's head."
Jayant also scored a hundred in the previous Test at Wankhede, adding useful runs with Kohli himself. Those vital contributions from the lower middle-order has allowed India to continue with their five-bowler plan. And like with the ball, it is Ashwin leading the way here as well.
"I think Ashwin has set a benchmark for the other spinners to contribute with the bat as well. Jadeja has come of age with the bat in this series. We saw his knock in Mohali, where he went out with lot of confidence and scored 90 runs for us," said the 28-year-old batsman.
"Jayant Yadav as well. He gets inspired seeing Ashwin, the way he improves his cricket every time. So Jayant always has been a keen learner. He works a lot on his batting as well. All the fast bowlers, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, even Umesh become so much better with the bat and they understand the importance of those runs. Amit Mishra has done very well with the bat. So as a captain, it gives you more freedom to play five batsmen, rather than thinking of another batsman, where your bowlers contribute 120-130 runs every game for you. That's as good as playing another batsman and you get a bowling option as well," added the India captain.
County cricket for Kohli?
While captaincy has become a rather comfortable task, Kohli's batting too has seen him peak through the Tests against England. He leads the run-charts with 640 runs in the series. There is also an obvious gameplan from Kohli in Test cricket to keep scoring along the ground, so much so that a lofted shot of any kind has become his last priority.
"It has been a conscious effort [curbing sixes]. Many times, I felt like I can go after the spinners but I understand that I need to go in that extra hour or two hours for the team. I don't feel the necessity to hit sixes, it is just an excitement of the batsman crossing 150, 160, you feel like expressing yourself. But then I realise that if I am scoring at 3 or 4 an over without trying to hit the boundary, I can rotate strike and do that for the team. I don't necessarily need to take that big risk at any stage and cost the team some momentum. If the management and I have decided to play five batsmen, it obviously makes up my mind to take some more responsibility out there in the middle, rather than doing what I want to do. So, it is about finding ways to still be positive and at the same time, understanding what the team needs. That's the balance you need to strike at the international level, you can't just go there and play your own game and say 'that's the way I play'," says Kohli, who now averages above fifty across all the formats of the game.
"Not really," he answered when a question about him being invincible was asked. "We still understand we got to play a lot of cricket everywhere in the world. It's not only about this one period we are going through. It looks really good because we have come out of transition and immediately started winning games. But I wouldn't take this thing as overconfidence. As I said, it's an ongoing process which needs to be sustained for the next five-seven or eight years for us to become a top quality side and leave a mark on world cricket; maybe known as one of the best teams to have assembled on the field. We want to do it across formats and make that mark for Indian cricket on the world stage. But it requires a lot of persistence and skill, lot of hard work on your fitness and those are the key factors which will decide where we go as a unit and as a team."
A similar philosophy also extends to his personal game. Kohli's weakest batting series as of date remains the tour of England in 2014, where he averaged a meek 13.4 in ten innings. Despite all the success since then, that record continues to be a chip on the shoulder. However, the star batsman admitted that the thought of playing county cricket in England to improve his game had crossed his mind.
"If I have a chance I would love to do that, love to be there, say a month or a month and half, and get used to playing in those conditions, understand how the wickets behave in that particular phase of the year. I think those things matter a lot. Preparation time is something which is very crucial for any side, so yeah, if I have the opportunity to go there [for] a few days before the start, that will be great. I have actually been thinking about it, trying to work out how I can make it happen. Most definitely, if I have the time, I'll go and play there," he said. The move, if it happens, will be another step in Kohli trying to improve his own game in the Test format.
In a different context, Kohli said, "To me all these [Joe Root, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson] are world class players and I have always rated each one of them higher than me in Test cricket especially, because of the way they have performed in the last two or three years. I understood my limitations and never tried to outdo them in the longest format of the game. In shorter formats, yes, I have been doing very well. I understood what I needed to do in the longest format for me to be able to contribute the maximum for my team. That's been my aim. My aim was never to go about Joe or Steve or Kane."
India will tour England next in the summer of 2018. A major speed-breaker for a lot of county aspirants though, has been the emergence of the Indian Premier League (IPL) during the same time. Probably, Kohli could still manage a week or two of county cricket between the end of the IPL and the start of India's tour. If his schedules can be worked out, it will be interesting to see if he actually goes on to set a precedent with that.
Kohli keen to play county cricket before England tour - Cricbuzz
