One of MS Dhoni’s greatest qualities was knowing the perfect timing of everything. Despite being one of his healthiest cricketers, he decided to retire from Test cricket, and midway through the 2014/15 Australian tour, he handed the reins to Virat Kohli. rice field. He knew Kohli was the right man to propel India forward in Red Ball Cricket in Adelaide, the first of the tour. It definitely helped the missing Dhoni to make up his mind. His former Indian Field Coach, R. Sridhar, who was part of the Indian Support Team at this Border Gavaskar Trophy, tells an interesting story about the conversation Dhoni and Kohli had before the final day of the Adelaide test. shared.
India has been eighth or lower since the start of the friendly. In his debut as captain, Kohli hit a great century in the first innings, but India was staring at a big total in the fourth innings. Told.
“Virat was clear on how India would proceed the next morning. We had already looked for the required rate of 4 and over in case Australia declared overnight which was the case for the day. rice field. But Virat was convinced there was no question of closing the hatch and wanting a draw,” Sridhar wrote in his book Coaching Beyond: My Days With The Indian Cricket Team.
Sridhar detailed how MS Dhoni actually tried to convince his Virat to reconsider his plans to go all out for the goal on the final day. “Listen, Virat, you can chase this amount. not. Can a batsman play aggressively on the final day of a friendly and chase a 360? The power of the entire team should be considered when making decisions,” Sridhar wrote. His Virat response to MS was brief. Whether you can. I never chased a 360 on the final day of a test match. Let’s try. How do we know how good we are if we don’t try?” he added.
India were given his 364 goals and got off to a great start with Virat Kohli scoring in his second century Test. He started Murali Vijay as a company. However, just as the latter was seeded in the 1st century, he was dismissed by off-spinner Nathan Lyon for 99. India continued to attack, but Lyon regularly took wickets. , India fell short of target by 48 runs.
As expected, Australia declared overnight with a 364 on target. With Virat and Murali Vijay in the lead, much of the chase was going well and found Australia rocked. When Nathan Lyon came on target he was finally up 2 to 242 within sight of the tape. Despite Virat’s second Test 100, we lost 46 runs, but for me that match was the start of the day for the Indian Test team. That was the moment we knew as a team that this was how Test cricket was played,” Sridhar said.
