We’re all victims of our own hubris at times and that is why Kohli’s India needed this

Just a few days back as Virat Kohli smashed another double century against a helpless Sri Lanka, I had written about how the Indian skipper’s genius needs a challenge. His run-scoring feats, as they stand, are spectacular but they aren’t a surefire way for us to judge him as a Test batsman; as a Test batsman who succeeds in all conditions.

Is he as solid as Sunil Gavaskar or the consummate run collector like Sachin Tendulkar or the wall like Rahul Dravid? Did he have Gundappa Viswanath’s skill? Did he have Mohinder Amarnath’s guts? We wanted to know all of that and we so hoped that South Africa would help us by providing us with at least part of the answer.

And it has done just that. We finally have a series that doesn’t look like it will be tailored to please the batsmen.

Batting in Newlands during the first Test was not easy. It was a difficult track at the best of times – there was prodigious bounce, consistent movement and pace too. South Africa also had an attack that could make best use of these conditions.

It wasn’t an ordinary bowling attack either. No attack with Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel can ever be called ordinary. In other words, it was a challenge – for Kohli, for Ravi Shastri, for Cheteshwar Pujara, for Rohit Sharma, for Murali Vijay and for Shikhar Dhawan. A challenge that they had eagerly sought. A challenge they had perfectly prepared for. A challenge, they told us, they were ready for.

So then, what happened? Why is it that at the end of the day we were digging up India’s home and away record again? Why is it that we were talking about India’s frail technique against pace? Why is it that the new India were still just as bad as the old India?

Too casual

In Kohli’s words, they were just not good enough. Not good enough to bat on this pitch and not good enough to stand up to this South African attack.

“The kind of bowling attack they have especially on these pitches, they get extra bounce. You can’t be casual, you can’t play loose shots. Credit goes to their bowling attack. They force you to play good cricket in all overs,” said Kohli in the post-match press conference.

But India did that all of what Kohli felt they shouldn’t have done – they were at times casual, at times loose and clearly unable to keep their concentration up. In the first innings, India lost their first five wickets with just 76 runs on board. They followed it up with a repeat dose in the second innings – once again losing 5/76. Pray, what did they learn between the two innings? On account of what we saw, precious little.

It was almost as if India’s batsmen made no attempt to adjust to the pitch and to the conditions. They came, they saw and they walked back to the dressing room in quick succession. If this the result of the “perfect” preparation that the team had talked about, then this team is doomed.

Then again – can a series against Sri Lanka at home be considered preparation? The good teams will arrive early ahead of a tour, play warm-up matches, acclimatise, get their body clock running right and only then think about getting into a Test series. India, on the other hand, thought they could just wing it.

Remember Shastri’s words? “We play to win. We don’t go there to do time-pass.”

Selling themselves short

But then, is this how you prepare? If you prepare this way, you will fail. He might turn around and say as Kohli did in the post-match presentation, “If we had taken our chances in the first innings, even after them counter-attacking, we could have kept them to 220.”

If one throws the same argument back at the skipper, where would India have been if South Africa had taken their chances and Pandya had been dismissed on 15? The point, however, isn’t that. You don’t just flip a switch and change your game. It takes time and effort to do that. And in that regard, India sold themselves short.

Even if they start improving now, it will only go to show that they needed to play more cricket before going into the first Test. That is how they would have given them the best start.

When you step back and look at the situation the Indian captain and the team finds itself in, one word that seems to fit is ‘hubris’. The team is perhaps paying the price of not taking the Test cricket Gods seriously enough. They thought ‘home is away’ and ‘away is home’ but Newlands had an abject lesson in store for them.

The game can seem simple when you are winning match after match. Like clockwork, it all seems to fall in place. But now, stung by defeat, can Kohli and his team rise? They will want to but can they?

The answer to that question will be revealed when the second Test begins on Saturday in conditions that are said to be similar but for now all one can hope for is that the reverse will bring about the desired realigning of goals.