Indian Test cricket skipper Virat Kohli on Monday said that England team's lack of intent gave him enough "assurance" that they would crumble anytime during their herculean chase of 405.
Opener Alastair Cook and teenager Haseeb Hameed blocked almost everything adding 75 runs in 50.2 overs but once they were dismissed, it became a walk in the park for the home team as they clinched the Test with a 246-run win.
"Not giving away at more than 1.5 per over, we thought they would come out with more intent to be honest. And to see the approach that they had obviously gave us assurance that once we get a couple of wickets, it will crumble pretty quickly because there wasn't much intent from the batsmen," Kohli made no bones about what he felt about visitor's approach.
"It is a pretty basic thing to do, to be honest, and if you don't have intent in the fourth innings, it is tough to play out four and a half sessions."
While most of the other batsmen were busy defending, Kohli aggregated 248 runs from two innings with scores of 167 and 81.
‘no captaincy load’
Virat Kohli enjoys the pressure of expectations and made it clear that he will only assess after three years as to how much of a "load" captaincy has become for him.
"Maybe in three four years time I can analyse how much load I am feeling but at the moment's coming along nicely so I am pretty okay with it," Kohli said after leading India to a massive 246-run win in the second cricket Test against England. The Indian Test skipper now has 2277 runs across all International formats during this calendar year — shade behind England's Joe Root (2285). "It's a difficult thing to detach yourself from being captain when you go out there to bat especially when you are playing five batters. The responsibility obviously increases much more. But it also makes me not hit the ball in the air which I probably prefer in Test cricket."
Talking about the limited overs format which is captained by MS Dhoni, Kohli said it's easier as he does not have to think or implement much.
"In other formats, it's relatively easy on the mind to prepare, because you are only thinking about batting, obviously you have to give inputs on the field but it's not necessary that you have to take those decisions, you have to give suggestions.”