3 times when team India lost a test because of Kohli’s bizarre team selection

Virat Kohli is known to be a tactically shrewd captain who always leads from the front both with the bat and in the field. The Indian skipper’s relentless aggression has been the biggest source of inspiration for the players since he took over from M.S. Dhoni in 2014. Very rarely you would see Kohli being bogged down on a cricket field.

Kohli first led India in test cricket in Adelaide in 2014 where he scored twin hundreds in what turned out to be a narrow defeat. After Dhoni’s retirement, Kohli led the team in the Sydney test in the same series and that was the start of his captaincy journey.

The Delhi-born lad is a very aggressive captain who likes to back his bowlers all the time. However, in the recent times, Kohli has been criticized for making bizarre calls as a captain which has resulted in India losing crucial matches.

It was the start of the much-anticipated India vs Australia test series in the brand new MCA International stadium in Pune. Hopes were high as the fans expected the Indians to decimate the Aussies and win comfortably. The pitch for this game was underprepared and turning square from Day 1.

In such conditions, Kohli surprisingly opted to play Jayant Yadav as a third spinner at the expense of triple-centurian Karun Nair, who seemed to be the obvious choice at no.6. The general saying that goes around is: you play an extra batsman on a rank turner to add cushion to the batting line-up.

There is no point in playing five bowlers when the innings is not going to last 80 overs anyways. Kohli’s decision of not playing an extra batsman costed India dearly as the hosts were bowled out for 105 and 107 in the two innings, thereby slumping to a humiliating 333-run defeat.

Jayant contributed for only two of the twenty wickets, as the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja wrecked havoc on the Australian batting line-up. The Haryana born cricketer has played in only two tests after this game and has been out of the Indian side since the start of 2017.