India vs England: The tactical side of Virat Kohli's captaincy on Day 2 of Oval Test left plenty to be desired

Surely, by now Virat Kohli would know about the sting in the England tail. India had finished Day One with the honours and the morning session of the second day was a great opportunity to seize control of the match. The ball was still new, the conditions were gloomy and at the crease, they had Adil Rashid and Jos Buttler. The 22-yard-strip had quickened considerably and the ball was just starting to hurry off the surface. There was seam and movement through the air. The Indian seamers still had plenty of fuel in the tank, this was India’s chance to go for the jugular. The first ball of the second over from Jasprit Bumrah was a genuine half-volley that was crunched through the covers by Rashid for a boundary. Kohli reacted immediately by taking the fourth slip out and putting him on the fence behind square. The score at the time was 202-7, by no means were England in control. Off the last ball of the over, Rashid pushed the ball into the huge gap at point and ran a comfortable single. [caption id=“attachment_5146851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India captain Virat Kohli. AP[/caption] Kohli, the captain who demands ruthlessness, was already on the back-foot. For some bizarre reason, he only had his sights set on dismissing Rashid. Every time Buttler was on strike in the first few overs of the day, Kohli gave the England No 7 the luxury of taking singles at will. The ball was still seaming and Rashid showed great resilience to bat for nearly 35 minutes before Bumrah finally trapped him leg before wicket. This presented another window for India and Kohli to be hardnosed. Stuart Broad, the No 10, came in with the score at 214-7. There were still five balls left in the over, but Kohli, for reasons known only to him, decided to employ a deep point. The first ball to Broad was on the money, Broad played with an open face, slightly risky against the moving ball, but such was the field that he could get off strike with ease. Buttler came on strike, at that point having faced just 10 balls. Bumrah is still moving the ball at pace and he induces an edge from Buttler. The ball goes straight to third slip, but Kohli has a sweeper trying to save a single. Buttler gets away, England adds another run and Kohli has missed another trick. As the partnership grew, Kohli turned to Mohammed Shami. England were 234-8 and by no means on top in the game. However, as Shami stood on top of his run-up, Kohli had four men on the boundary. In the next two overs, Shami beat Buttler four times, but Kohli still kept four men stationed on the fence. Slowly Buttler started finding his touch and with each run Broad’s confidence started to rise. The pair pusheed the score past 250 and Kohli, standing at second slip, started to panic. He waved his hands frantically and kept changing the field every time a run is conceded. It became a game of ‘follow the ball’ from the Indian skipper. Shami continued to hoop the ball and found another edge from Buttler’s willow. This time it flew through the third slip leading Kohli, standing at second slip, to kick the ground in disgust. For the next ball he moved wider at second slip in the hope Buttler would repeat the same mistake. But the chance had gone and Buttler reached his half-century. England were mounting a first innings total around the 300-run mark and with each minute the run-rate was starting to rise. As had been the case for most of the day, Kohli’s priority was to get rid of England’s tail without focusing on dismissing Buttler. As lunch approached, Kohli was even prepared to give Buttler singles off the fifth ball to give his bowlers only one crack at Broad. This was strange captaincy. The horse has well and truly bolted. Kohli the aggressor, the antagonist, the provoker looked clueless.  The tactical side of captaincy has left plenty to be desired. Throughout the day, he was neither seen consulting the vice-captain nor did he set his goal on dislodging Buttler. By lunch, England had eclipsed the 300-run mark, a figure that looked such a distant number at stumps on Day One. Buttler was finally dismissed for 89, but not before he had led England to a competitive score of 332. Kohli had a disappointing day as the skipper, he failed to stay ahead of the game and his mindset almost mirrored that of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s during those two abysmal away tours in 2011 to England and Australia. As India fell to 174-6 at stumps, Kohli will realise that he has missed a golden opportunity to grab hold of the game. The first session was the time Kohli with his ultra-defensive mindset had let the game drift away and England made the most of it.