Allan Border, the former captain of Australia, has expressed disappointment regarding the inability of his team to contain Virat Kohli in the first Test at Perth, which he believes could cost the hosts in the five-match series. Kohli roared back to form with an unbeaten hundred in the second innings that propelled India to a convincing 295-run victory over the hosts after he had not achieved a Test century in 18 months. “I was really disappointed in the way we let Kohli roll on to a hundred without much resistance,” Border told SEN radio this Friday morning.
“We don’t want this guy full of confidence for the rest of the series.” Border questioned Pat Cummins further about this reliance on Kohli regaining his form following reportedly poor performance in the recent home series against New Zealand. Kohli’s century becomes his seventh century on Australian soil.
Former opener Matthew Hayden similarly took aim at Cummins for having bad field settings after bringing in Kohli into bat.
“They missed a few tricks with Virat Kohli in the early part of his innings. Nathan Lyon had mid-on back, one on the off-side catching and a mid-wicket. I felt like it was so easy for him to get off strike,” Hayden had told Channel 7 after India’s victory.
“One can’t today offer a sucker even a partial break when a man is so down as he was. The field we actually finished with – two slips, no point, a man straight – it offered up the outside edge of his bat as well. He found it a little bit more frustrating. Once he had got the bit between his teeth, it was too late.”
Hayden highlighted the tactical lapses in the earlier partnerships of India, particularly in not using the short-ball techniques too late.
“Jaiswal seemed susceptible against that. Perhaps tiny things with Pat Cummins; the ability to think through these decisions. They tend to be shell-shocked from the average batting performance (in the first innings) and again as we see now, bombs are going,” he said.
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