Takeaways from the Nagpur Test: Kohli magic, Pujara’s slow crawl, Rohit’s comeback ton

India dominated day three of the Nagpur Test against Sri Lanka with skipper Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma helping themselves to big runs. For only the third time, four batsmen have scored a hundred in the same innings for India. Sri Lanka’s bowlers toiled hard but without much direction and the Indian batsmen took full advantage of that.

Here are four takeaways from a Sunday that was dominated by the batsmen:

As always, Kohli cashes in

10 international tons this year – most by a captain in a calendar year. Most tons by an Indian skipper ever. Another double century – his fifth. Most 150+ test scores by an Indian as a captain. One of only two players to score five double-hundreds as a captain in Tests along with Brian Lara (85 innings).

With almost every outing, Kohli seems to be breaking records and there are few cricketers who know how to cash in better than the Indian skipper. Once he does get going in good conditions... rarely if ever... does he gift his wicket away. The opposition will have to earn his wicket. Today, for most part, he chose to not play any shots in the air. He cut out the risk, worked his way through the first hour and then steadily kept increasing the tempo of his innings.

For any young cricketer, just watching Kohli should be an educational experience. He invariably has the bigger picture in mind. The hunger to making each effort count is clear, and he puts his best foot forward every time.

Virat Kohli’s last 7 Test centuries: 200, 211, 167, 235, 204, 103*, 213. He clearly has learned how to make the most of every opportunity. One often wonders what records Kohli will hold at the end of his career, but given how he still seems to be improving, it is almost impossible to get a fair estimate.

Pujara’s way

It was that kind of day. India started the day already in charge of the match. Kohli was going well, Pujara looked set and the Sri Lankan side was bereft of any good ideas. Even in that scenario, Pujara chose an ‘occupy the crease’ strategy – he defended calmly and for a while, it made sense. It was a new day and the batsmen needed to get to grips with the wicket again. So, even though Virat looked in supreme touch, it wasn’t surprising to see Pujara play his own game.

Still, as the session wore on, Pujara seemed to have got stuck in a rut. He tried to use his feet to the spinners, he tried to find the gap but he never really tried to force the pace enough. Then, when he got out – bowled once again – his strike-rate on a good batting wicket was 39.50.

The innings seemed to be enough to irritate VVS Laxman in the commentary box.

“I can understand that if the conditions were difficult and Pujara chose this approach,” said Laxman. “But the batting conditions were good and it called for some more positive cricket. Positive cricket that Pujara is capable of playing, but for some reason chose not to. So I don’t really understand what happened there. He needed to up the scoring pace once he got his eye in,” he added.

Rohit’s back

At the toss, Kohli said that he wanted Rohit to have a go since he had been with the squad, but had not got any playing time. The Mumbai batsman did not disappoint his skipper and notched up his third Test ton.

Sunil Gavaskar believes Rohit’s shot selection has improved in the last two years and that might be the difference between him playing well in Tests and failing in the strangest, most exasperating ways.

As always, he made batting seem easy once he got going but is the Indian team thinking of playing an extra batsman in South Africa? That is the larger question to answer. If Rohit does get going, his experience against the new ball could be vital when the second new ball is taken later in the innings. He also scores at a fair clip and is comfortable against bounce.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Rohit when asked about his Test career at the end of the day. “I am disappointed that I missed out on a huge home season last year. You don’t often get 13 Tests at home, but I am happy with where my career is right now. I also know that the next few months are going to tough.”

Sri Lanka’s tactics

Good batting tracks demand something special from the bowling side, especially from the captain. As Virat Kohli was smashing the ball all over the park, not once did we see Chandimal and Co attempt to make him do anything different.

When Steve Smith was playing his marathon knock at Brisbane a couple of days back, Joe Root and England attempted to stifle him with a short-ball strategy and a packed leg-side field. But, Sri Lanka just seemed to be waiting for the match and innings to end – maybe that was their strategy.

For a team that has produced so many greats in the recent past, this lack of intent was troubling.