Virat Kohli
Skipper Virat Kohli blames India's batting intent after Adelaide collapse
Adelaide/UNI: India captain Virat Kohli blamed his team's batting intent after his side's humiliating defeat inside three days of the day-night test against Australia, here on Saturday.
India suffered a dramatic collapse - from 9 for 1 to 36 all out - in the second innings on Day 3 and eventually lost the game by 8 wickets, after dominating the first two days, to concede a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
Analysing his team's performance, Kohli said that it's very hard to put the feeling into words.
"It really hurts. We probably didn't have enough intent in the batting today," Kohli said.
"It's very hard to put those feeling into words. We had a lead of 60-odd when we arrived. And then we just collapsed. We played two days of good cricket to get in a position and then just lose it in an hour," Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
The Indian captain, who scored top scored for team in the first innings with a patient 74, felt that the mindset of the batsmen in the second innings led to their downfall as they went into their shell instead of looking for runs.
"The bowlers bowled similar kind of areas in the first innings as well, but then our mindset was to get runs," Kohli said.
"There were some good balls but I don't think it did anything drastic. Just the atmosphere was created where runs were difficult to come by. I think it was a combination of both - lack of intent, and bowlers bowling in good areas ,'' he pointed out.
Even as Kohli takes paternity leave, he stressed he's confident the team is capable of bouncing back in the series.
Kohli won't be there for the next three Tests and will return home to be with his pregnant wife Anushka Sharma. But the skipper was confident of his team's abilities and backed India to bounce back in the next Test in Melbourne on Boxing Day.
"I am confident the boys going forward will reflect on this and come up with a better result on Boxing Day," he said.
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