Virat Kohli Wants His Batsmen To Not Be Overly Cautious In Their Approach

The number one Test team India came nowhere close to beating New Zealand in the first Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. The visitors failed to cross 200 in both the innings in seam-friendly conditions as well as they were unable to restrict the Kiwis to a gettable lead. Speaking of their below-par batting performance, Indian captain Virat Kohli has stated that a defensive mindset in an overseas Test match never works in winning the same.

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India’s run of seven consecutive Test wins in the ICC World Test Championship came to an end as they ended up on the losing side by ten wickets. The likes of Kyle Jamieson, Trent Boult, and Tim Southee ran through India’s much-vaunted batting line-up in various phases of two innings.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari consumed 81 and 79 deliveries for 15 and 11 runs respectively. And that provoked the Delhi batsman to point out that batsmen need to adopt an attacking approach slightly to thrive in overseas Tests.

Team India batsmen found Wellington too tough to bat on:

Kohli himself became a victim of wrong shot selections, making 19 and two in the two innings.

The 31-year old pointed out that the mindset has to be correct for the batting unit. He also stated that being overly cautious can peg the batsmen back and that might lead them in restricting to play their shots when needed.

“I think the language we use as a batting unit, that has to be correct. I don’t think being cautious or wary will help because you might stop playing your shots.” Kohli said as quoted by Times of India.

Kohli explains the thinking behind his attacking mindset in away Tests:

Kohli further conceded that in case the deck is favourable to seamers, he tries to take the attack to the opposition.

At the same time, Kohli said that if the method doesn’t pay dividends, it is fair to accept that your thinking was correct, even though you tried your best to bring your opponents down. But he is firm in his opinion that a cautious approach never works in away red-ball games.

“If I see a situation, if it is a green wicket, then I try to play counter-attacking cricket so that I can take the team forward. If you don’t succeed, then you have to accept that your thinking was correct, you tried but it didn’t come off, fair enough. There is no harm in accepting that. But I don’t think a cautious approach ever pays off, especially away from home.” he added further.

The second Test between the two sides begins at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday (February 29).

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