Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar on Monday provided his perspective over 'that massive factor' that led to India's 10-wicket defeat in Wellington to New Zealand. Virat Kohli's men, the No.1 ranked Test side, were outsmarted in all departments in New Zealand as the visitors incurred their first defeat in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship.
Manjrekar reckons that the failure of captain Kohli to put runs on the board stood as the decisive factor in India's heavy defeat in the Test series opener.
“Kohli getting out early in both innings, that was a massive factor. If Virat Kohli gets runs, it puts the opposition off their plans. New Zealand stuck to their plans, nobody was out there counter-attacking and this did not help India’s cause,” Manjrekar told on Star Sports after the match.
It has been a poor tour for Kohli in New Zealand with his scores reading - 45, 11, 38, 11 (T20s); 51, 15, 9 (ODIs) and 2 and 19 (1st Test). Apart from that, Kohli has been on a century-less run across formats over his last 20 innings, scoring his last hundred against Bangladesh at home in Kolkata.
When asked about his poor run of form with the bat in the ongoing series, Kohli seemed less worried.
“I am absolutely fine. I am batting really well. I feel that sometimes scores don’t reflect the way you are batting and that’s what can happen when you don’t execute what you want to well,” Kohli told reporters at the end of the 1st Test match. “Look when you play so much cricket and you play for so long, obviously you will have 3-4 innings that don’t go your way. If you try and make too much out of it, it’ll keep piling on.”
