India's morale will not be broken. They really like to be in such situations. Situations where the whole world doubts them. This is what Virat Kohli said after the innings defeat against England at Headingley. The captain also stressed that this is not the time to look at the numbers of individual players but on their contribution and how they can put the team in good shape.
"If what happens in one game, you get the same guarantee in the next game, then we should have beaten England again," Kohli said. "It didn't happen. We like to be in a situation where people start approaching us with doubts and questioning our ability. That's the situation we love the most. We don't get discouraged by the loss." Changing people the room hurt. When you get injured, you really want to fix things that didn't suit us. That's how we play the next two Tests."
India's middle order has averaged in the 20s over the past two years and their No. 6 has been repeating the same style of dismissal since the World Test Championship final. Kohli, however, refused to focus on the struggling individuals.
Kohli said, “As a batting group, we failed in this match in the first innings. "We did a better job in the second innings. As a bowling group, we accept that we are not consistent enough. That's all. I know what happens when we lose a game. I've said so many times that we're not. We're going to fall into this trap where we start talking about issues or a thing or two. We fail as a team, and we're a team. Win as."
Asked if Rishabh Pant is batting a station ahead of where he should be, Kohli cited the example of Cheteshwar Pujara's comeback. "With one defeat I can't begin to assess or analyze it as a captain," he said. "Definitely the management is not going to start this. We are not failing consistently as a team. Yes we failed in this game and we take responsibility for that.
"Similar conversations were being started about Pujara, who seems to have disappeared after yesterday. We want to give full space to Rishabh to play his game and understand the circumstances and take responsibility as he is. Everyone else in the batting order is expected. You can't judge people by numbers all the time whether they are succeeding or failing. That's how you don't make a team. There's still time in this series. After two more Tests, we can look back and analyze, 'Well these are areas that weren't quite right,' but now is not the time.
"This game has been kind of a divergence in the way we've gone through this series. The first two games, we put ourselves in a position where we won one game and had the opportunity to win the first one as well. We Let's analyze ourselves as a team. And not [individual] numbers. It all comes out. Are we helping build partnerships and putting the team in good shape is our only focus. Focused on the outside and the group There is no connection between the centered within."
Kohli tried to take the heat away from the batting group. "He has done that in the first two games [understand the situation and find ways to score runs]," he said. "And even in this game, the batsmen were in a good position to play big innings. We weren't able to do that, but that doesn't mean we won't be able to. When you step on the field, you don't Want to prove to people that you can play. You obviously want to do your best and play big innings. The reason we won the second Test or were in a position to win the first is because people stepped up and got the job done for the team.
"The things we need to consider are mistakes. As I've said in the past, when we've lost, we've played seasons that have been below par ... not up to the level we know that we can play. These are the areas we need to add. Like this morning, we need to see how we can control that tide and find ways out of tough situations These are the only things. You can't be a bad team overnight. If a win doesn't guarantee you a win in the next game, even a loss doesn't guarantee anything. It all depends on your mindset. I'll tell you I can assure that we get to [The Oval for the next Test on Thursday] with more determination and intensity than we did in this game."