Team India and Virat Kohli must be feeling out of place after the recent loss to Australia. Virat Kohli may not have thought he would be in this state after staying at the top for a year and a half. So, how will he react now is for everyone to see. But if Virat Kohli wants to see the silver lining to this, there is something he can take positively. Let us roll back the years, go 16 years back to draw confidence going into the Bengaluru Test.
That year Sourav Ganguly had just taken over captaincy after a lot of muck took centrestage in Indian cricket. Ganguly had to mentor a team with youngsters looking to make a mark, it was fairly a new set up. India were facing-off against a unbeatable Australian team, which comprised of many match-winners like Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath. India were trashed in the first Test at Mumbai by 10 wickets. Australia had made their intentions clear, they wanted a whitewash.
Both the teams headed for Eden Gardens for round two of this contest. India were soon facing a follow on in Kolkata, that is when Sourav Ganguly played the masterstroke, he asked VVS Laxman to bat at 3 and Dravid at 6. The rest as they say is history. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted for two complete days, Laxman scored a famous 281 and Dravid got 180, India set Australia a target of a 150-odd runs. In the final day, Harbhajan Singh ran through the famed Aussie line-up also picking a hattrick on the way through. The impossible had happened, India halted Steve Waugh’s unbeaten streak of 16 matches. India led by Sourav Ganguly had squared the series and were looking ahead.
Virat Kohli and his boys should take a leaf out of this, that nothing is impossible and where there is a will there is a way. A few players have to step it up, come Bengaluru.
