Pandya Effect: Kohli reveals why he played second fiddle vs Australia

India skipper Kohli took his time to get settled at the crease and after an uncharacteristic stuttering start, Virat started getting his full range in last five overs

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has the ability to change his run-scoring pace while batting but the star batsman feels that having a flamboyant hard-hitter like Hardik Pandya on the other end, allows him to play second fiddle at times. Batting first, fifties from Virat Kohli, followed by cameos from Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni helped the men-in-blue post a mammoth 352/5 on the board. Kohli took his time to get settled at the crease and after an uncharacteristic stuttering start, Virat started getting his full range in last five overs. He was happy running the ones and twos, save the two sixes off Mitchell Starc as Pandya was the aggressor, scoring 48 off 25 balls. "Okay, yeah, that thought (to start attacking) did come to my mind. After I crossed 50, I sort of spoke to Hardik and he said, I don't necessarily need to take any chances," the skipper said. In fact, it was Pandya who told his captain to drop anchor as his presence gave him freedom to attack. "Hardik said, the fact that you are at one end gives me more assurance to play my game. So, I had to take responsibility of holding it but still maintaining tempo, knocking the ball around," the skipper said, providing some nuggets of his conversation with Pandya. One of the reasons was not getting enough deliveries that upset his rhythm. "And then in the last five, six overs, I think I played about six balls. So, I would play one ball in three overs and that was also single immediately. As a batsman, you can't really get rhythm after a while. These things happen in the one-day game." "As long as guys like Hardik and MS (Dhoni) play like that, I have no problem in just doing my job and taking singles and being at one end. Sometimes, you will get an opportunity to strike as well, and this is what we discussed as a team. "If some guys are hitting at a certain strike rate, you make sure that you play a second fiddle and control the game because if you lose wickets -- if we lost five wickets in that phase, you're looking at 20 runs less maybe," the skipper said, explaining his rationale behind the game plan. But what gave skipper confidence was Pandya's immense self belief that he would score at strike-rate of 200. "Hardik said to me in the middle of the fact that I'm there at one end gave him the freedom to strike from ball one, and he wanted to strike at 200. That was his plan, and then MS came in and he did the same job beautifully," the skipper said.