Christchurch: “No excuses,” said Indian captain Virat Kohli after yet another batting capitulation led to his team’s 0-2 series defeat at the hands of New Zealand here Monday.
A forthright Kohli admitted that his batsmen let the team down after the bowlers brought them back into the game on the second day.
“We accept it upfront and if we have to win away from home, we have to do that. No excuses, just learning moving forward. In Tests, we weren’t able to play the cricket we wanted to,” Kohli said.
After making 242 in the first innings of the must-win second Test, India folded for 124 in their second essay, leaving the hosts with a victory target of 132 for a series sweep.
“The batsmen didn’t do enough for the bowlers to try and attack. The bowling was good, I thought even in Wellington we bowled well. Sometimes if you bowl well and things don’t happen, you have to take it in your stride,” the skipper said.
At the presentation ceremony, Kohli said his team would have to ‘go back’ to the drawing board.
“It was a matter of not having enough intent in the first game, and not closing out here. We didn’t bowl in the right areas for long enough. They created a lot of pressure. It was a combination of us not executing well enough and New Zealand sticking to their plans.
“Disappointing, have to go back to the drawing board and correct things going forward.”
Asked if the coin not landing in his favour had any impact, he said, “Toss, you could think about it being a factor, but we don’t complain. It did give extra advantage to the bowlers in each Test but as an international side, you’re expected to understand that.”
“I think it was a matter of not having enough intent in the first game. We played well in the first innings here with the bat. It was a combination of us not having the right kind of execution and New Zealand playing well. Batsmen didn’t do enough for the bowlers to attack. It’s disappointing as a side when the batsmen don’t back up the effort of the bowlers,” he said.
“We need to go back, understand what went wrong and move forward. We are not a side that thinks about the result of the toss. We are not going to take excuses from this tour, just the learning. In the ODIs it was good to see the youngsters stepping up with Rohit not being available and me not getting runs. We need to accept we were not good enough, take it on the chin and move on,” Kohli added.
PTI
