After Humiliating Batting Collapse, Kohli Says India Needs To Find Ways To 'Control The Tide'

IND Vs ENG: Along with that Virat Kohli showed faith in his team selection saying that he will not play an extra batsman as he doesn't "believe in that balance"

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From 215/2 to 278 all-out, India did go down in a humiliating fashion on Saturday. After winning the Lord's Test match in style, India was restricted in the third Test match of the series. The eight wicket collapse for just 63 runs is something that you do not accept from a world-class team. India lost the Leeds Test by an innings and 76 runs. 

Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara were the overnight batsmen for India. There was optimism at the start of Day 4 for India but these two settled batsmen were out in the first hour of the match. India never really looked ahead after that. They kept on losing wickets at key moments. After Kohli, the scores of Indian batsmen were 10, 1, 30, 6, 2, 1 and 0. Virat Kohli is vary of such a collapse as it has happened on more than one occassion, thus, he feels that there is a need to "stop the tide". 

India lose eight wickets on the morning of day four to set up an England victory by an innings and 76 runs!#WTC23 | #ENGvIND | https://t.co/qmnhRc14r1 pic.twitter.com/8sEWj8z1ZW

— ICC (@ICC) August 28, 2021

"When we have lost in the past, we have had sessions which were way below par, not up to the standard we can play and know how to play. So those are the areas which you realistically need to plug in when you lose a couple of wickets like this morning. How do you control the tide, how do you make sure that you're solid enough or consistent enough in your thought process and decision making and find ways out of that situation," Kohli said during the post-match presser. (as quoted by Cricbuzz) 

"You can't become a bad team overnight. If a win doesn't guarantee you a win in the next game, even a loss doesn't guarantee you a loss in the next game," he added.

Virat Kohli also gave credit to the way the England bowlers bowled. He felt that the chances of saving the match would have doubled had he and Pujara been there at the crease. ""Basically, they bowled much better than us in this match. We batted very well yesterday. Had me and Pujara batted on for another session, we would have been in a slightly better position but the manner in which they bowled with the new ball," said the skipper.