Former Indian batter and presenter Mohammad Kaif has reckoned that if the Indian talismanic batter Virat Kohli had played the second Test against Sri Lanka, the result would have been completely different.
Notably, India settled for a draw in the Colombo Test, and as a result, they have complicated their WTC Final qualification chances. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Kaif stated that Kohli would have sledged the opposition players and ensured that his side dominated the game.
“Playing Test cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea, boss. It is a very long game, and you have to keep bowling continuously. I felt that if someone like Virat Kohli had been playing this match, he would have been constantly shouting and keeping his team switched on. At times, I felt we took things for granted, thinking, ‘Just keep bowling, it will happen. The ball is turning so much, it will happen on its own,’” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
Furthermore, Kaif asserted that the energy within the Indian team was low and Kohli would have ensured it was up, adding that he would have gone hard at the Sri Lankan middle-order batter Sonal Dinusha to unsettle him at the crease.
“We created very few things ourselves. Our energy levels were also very low. That is why I am saying, if Virat Kohli had been playing this Test match, the result would have been different. The reason is that he would have been telling everyone, ‘Come on, Sarfaraz, come on, Jaiswal,’ and he would have gone after Sonal as well. Who were we getting into confrontations with? We were getting into confrontations with Kumara,” he added.
Dinusha ended the two-match Test series as the leading run-scorer, amassing 420 runs from four innings, including three centuries and a half-century.
