Virat Kohli’s Foot Dragged Approach Towards Follow On- A Curse Or A Boom

India, no 1 Test side in the world of Cricket, has been evincing their stature these days especially after clinching a win against Sri Lanka in their first test battle of Galle Test. From the first hour of game playing, the Virat Kohli led side exhibited a dominant cricket on the field. Winning the toss, Kohli confidently cruised through their batting onslaught which attained a magnificent show for Indian perspectives as Dhawan and Pujara both have sealed their praise worthy knocks. But this triumphant stroll over Lankan cricket kind of unleashed a matter of squabble along with the victorious bliss.

There have been talks regarding Kohli’s unwillingness to enforce follow on to the Sri Lankan side after crashing Lanka’s first innings shot on the total of 291 whereas India on the other end dragged their mammoth first innings run-machine to the total of 600. As a skipper shouldn’t Kohli’s approach be putting the Lankan side to bat for their second innings attempt after rattling them down with a margin of 300 runs? If it is not then is this the new trendy strategical move by the skipper to clinch victories in test cricket? These are the two major highlights which have been blinking on the minds of myriad cricket followers present in the world.

Pondering upon the rationalizations of such driven endeavour by Indian skipper, the only dialectical stance popped into our heads is that the ”anti follow on” campaign from Kohli’s end could only be taken up with open arms if it entails providing the Indian side with a victorious shield before handed. As we all find ourselves pretty much cognizant of the facts that enforcing follow on to the adversaries could back fire sometimes in ways of losing the batting momentum but the worst case crops up when you fall into a situation of running out of luck you could very soon witness your team’s downfall in this cricketing encounters. May be this is why Cricket is said to be the “game of uncertainty”.

Considering Kohli’s take on the same matter, I guess our skipper also had this thing in mind while he chose to avoid challenging follow on or else he might have gazed another outcome favoring his bowling blitz. In order to put the bowlers on a long term rest that move could be a smart drive but in the same manner, following his anti follow on approach his attempt on finishing the game for Lankan struggling batsmen by reflecting a gigantic target of 549, at last, spoke the conclusive words.

Digging into the past histories it could easily be comprehensible that this is not the first time our skipper Kohli has embraced such move, prior to that also he showed his valor characteristics. In the year of 2016 when India and New Zealand both met each other for their 3rd test fray at Indore where Ashwin dismantled the Kiwi batsmen and led the Indian team to a thrashing whitewash, our skipper on the 3rd day going against the enforcement of follow on took the decision of batting second whereas their first batting onslaught already created a deadlock for the kiwi batsmen whose batting endeavor ended with the total of 299 following India’s mammoth 557. At the end, this decision of Kohli paid off positively as they won the match by 321 runs.

Another magnificent batting display was shown by Indian batsmen during the test brawl against Bangladesh where India put a mammoth total of 687 following which Bangladesh ended their hunt at 388 allowing India to maintain 299 runs lead. But despite having a sufficient lead to enforce a follow on to Bangladesh side our skipper chose to bat for the second innings of which they declared their batting endeavor at the total of 159/4 setting the final target of 458 for Bangladesh batsmen to clinch the victory from Indian’s grip. Unfortunately Bangladeshi miserably broke down to 250 all out during their gigantic total hunt against mighty Indians.

This is how in every instance Indian skipper Kohli stood out against the natural instincts and embraced the odd resulting which Indians prevailed every battle they have encountered hitherto showing the valor side of their characteristics. But don’t you think in the imminent future it could be a matter of haunting if Kohli keeps standing by his such kind of trendy strategical move as a test captain because as I mentioned earlier you literally never know when a sounded strategy backfires you in the world of cricket. “Cricket is the game of uncertainty”- skipper Kohli shouldn’t overlook the statement.