We all know the bromance of the former Indian skipper’s MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Both are the fittest cricketer in history, and in the 2014-15 Broder-Gavaskar Trophy, Dhoni handed over the captaincy to Virat Kohli. After that, we all know how Virat becomes the most successful test captain of the Indian team. But that time, Indian fielding coach R Sridhar shared an interesting story of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli before the last day of the Adelaide test match.
Virat smashed a century in his captaincy debut test match against Australia in the first innings. In the fourth innings, the Indian team was chasing a big total, and Captain Kohli was on the crease. Sridhar said Kohli had decided to go for the target and not for a draw.
“Virat was unequivocal in what India’s approach would be the next morning no matter what target they set us to chase. We were already looking at a required rate of 4 an over in case Australia declared overnight, which they did. But Virat was unshakable in his belief that there was no question of battening down the hatches and looking for a draw,” Sridhar wrote in his book ‘Coaching Beyond: My Days With The Indian cricket team.’
R. Sridhar wrote in his book the whole convo between Virat and Dhoni, in which he mentioned that MS Dhoni tried to convince Virat to rethink his plan before going out there to chase down the total on the last day of the match.
“Virat later told me that MS Dhoni slid into the seat next to him on the bus ride back to the hotel. ‘Look, Virat, and you can chase down this total. You are that kind of a player, and we all know that, but as captain, you will also have to think about what the others are. Are the batters capable of playing that positively and attempting to chase down 360 on the final day of a Test match? While making decisions, you will have to consider the entire team’s strength,” Sridhar wrote.
Further, R. Sridhar wrote the reply of Virat Kohli, in which Virat explained that we haven’t tried to chase down the total of 364 runs in test cricket even before, but only if we try can we know whether we can chase down or not.
“Virat said he saw some merit in what MS had said, but he was clear in his mind that positivity was the way forward. Virat’s reply to MS was succinct, ‘Only if we try, we can know, na? Whether we can do it or not. We have not chased 360 on the last day of a Test match ever before because we haven’t yet tried to do that. Let us try and give it a shot. Unless we try, how will we know how good we are?'” he added.
The Indian team was given a total of 364 runs, and they started the chase very brilliantly. Indian skipper Virat Kohli scored another century in that match; however, opener Murali Vijay smashed 99 runs, but after these two batters, no one looked effective in front of the Kangaroos bowler; the Indian team lost that match 48 runs.
