 "'Virat you can chase this total, but...': R Sridhar reveals chat between Dhoni and Kohli during 2014 Adelaide Test")
R Sridhar, the former fielding coach of India, released his book Coaching Beyond: My Days With The Indian Cricket Team recently and the cricketing world has been hooked on to his words ever since. In his book, Sridhar has detailed some intriguing incidents about the Indian dressing room that few were privy to. Now, the internet’s attention has been snagged by another anecdote in his autobiography.
The former fielding coach opened up on a discussion between MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli during India’s tour of Australia as part of the Border- Gavaskar Trophy in 2014-15. Sridhar revealed how Dhoni had made up his mind to hand the reins of the Indian Test team to Kohli during the tour and retire from the format. A conversation between the two before the last day of the Adelaide Test, the first in the series, was detailed by the coach.
India were staring down a big total in the final innings of the Adelaide Test. Dhoni, who was not playing in the fixture, tried to convince Kohli to aim for a draw and not go in an attacking mode if Australia declared the innings. Kohli was the stand-in captain for the encounter.
Sridhar wrote that Kohli had told him what Dhoni had suggested. “Look, Virat, you can chase down this total, (Dhoni said). You are that kind of a player and we all know that but as captain, you will also have to think about what the others. Are the batters capable of playing that positively and attempting to chase down 360 on the final day of a Test match? While making decisions, you will have to consider the strength of the entire team”, Sridhar noted.
He added that while Kohli saw some merit in Dhoni’s advice, he was not willing to compromise on his approach. He replied to the wicketkeeper-batter that the team could know if it was capable of the feat or not, only after giving it a try. “We have not chased 360 on the last day of a Test match ever before because we haven’t yet tried to do that. Let us try and give it a shot. Unless we try, how will we know how good we are?” said Kohli as quoted by Sridhar’s book.
Quick Reads
View AllUltimately India were given a target of 364 on the final day of the game. Kohli notched up his second ton of the Test. But after his and Murali Vijay’s dismissal, the Indian team could not manage to sustain their momentum. They lost the match by 48 runs.
“Despite Virat’s second hundred of the test we went down by 48 runs but to me, that match was the beginning of where the Indian test team is today. That was the moment we knew as a team that this is how we are going to play test cricket,” Sridhar wrote.
Under Kohli’s guidance, India played 68 Tests and won 40 of them. The star batter remains the most successful Test captain of the country. Kohli stepped down from his post as the Test skipper after India’s series loss to South Africa in 2022.
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