India captain Virat Kohli on Monday criticised India’s batting performance in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington and said that his side was not competitive enough. The visitors suffered their first defeat in 7 Tests, after Kiwi bowled them out for 191 in the 2nd innings, with a meagre lead of 8 runs. Kiwi openers Tom Blundell and Tom Latham completed the formality of a chase without losing a wicket in just 2nd over of their 2nd innings. Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Kohli stressed that his side did not display a solid batting performance, getting bowled out below the total of 200 in both the innings.
“Toss turned out to be very important. As a batting unit we take pride in being competitive, but we weren’t. Even scoring 220-230 would’ve been good. That first innings put us behind and then the lead put us under more pressure,” Kohli said.
Despite the defeat, the Indian skipper praised Indian bowlers for putting in a fight, but added that the runs added by Kiwis tailenders made things difficult for his side. “The bowlers toiled well, as a bowling group we’ve taken pride in being competitive. Till the first 7 NZ wickets, we were really good. Wanted to restrict the lead to under 100, but the last runs from their batsmen made things difficult. But bowlers can still be more disciplined, they were not as happy with their bowling performance.”
Kohli further stressed that he cannot be too hard on his team. “You don’t want to be too hard on guys like Shaw. He’s played just 2 overseas Tests. He will figure a way, he will find a way to score runs. Mayank applied himself well, and he’s the only other person apart from Rahane who got us any momentum with the bat. Our strength is to put big scores for our bowlers to bowl at, and that was missing in this match.”
With the win, New Zealand have taken 1-0 lead in the two-match Test series, with the 2nd Test to begin from Saturday.
