Kohli defends Pujara and Rahane

[sarcastic]

Kohli also jumped in to defend his middle-order batting comrades, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. Part of the criticism directed at Pujara and Rahane was their inability to get stuck for long durations without moving the scoreboard, or the match, forward. Thus, when they did get out, sometimes even after scoring a half-century, the team hadn't gotten out of the woods at all.

"Jinks [Ajinkya Rahane] is one of those players who has been very solid for us in Test cricket. I don't look at averages and numbers and those things too much," Kohli said. "It is about impact performances. Has he been able to make enough impact performances for the team? The answer for me is yes. Whenever we have required an important performance from him, more often than not he has delivered. Also have to figure out how many guys in your team do average more than 42-43-44, so if you have a solid middle order, you need to make sure those guys are playing together enough. Few games here and there, if you don't execute those things properly, it doesn't mean you become bad players. So Jinks for us, we are not even thinking about those kind of things. He has been solid for us. He has put his hand up on many occasions when the team has been in trouble so there are no issues there.

"If you take the Australia series, Pujara made the biggest contribution there. It was the first time we won a series there. If you take things in isolation, you will find lots of things to use as excuses, that this didn't happen or something didn't happen because of that. When you play collectively, your aim is to put 300-350 on the board. Whether five people score 50-60 each or one person makes 150, like Pujara did in Australia, our aim to have a big score on the board. If that doesn't happen collectively, you must think about that rather than thinking what individuals have done. No one thinks like that. You play as a team and you want to do well as a team.

"Collectively as a batting unit we did not perform. To single out individuals, I don't believe in that. We take the hit together as a group, whether as a batting group or as a team. And we try to correct those things and move forward."

 

[raki05]

2 minutes ago, sarcastic said:

I don't look at averages and numbers and those things too much," Kohli said. "It is about impact performances.

 

2 minutes ago, sarcastic said:

Also have to figure out how many guys in your team do average more than 42-43-44, so if you have a solid middle order,

[diga]

Why will he not defend them? After all birds of same feather flock together

[Nikola]

Lol talk about intent of pujara when series is on and after series is done defend him.