Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Even before Jasprit Bumrah left field, ‘captain’ Kohli called the shots in Sydney | Cricket News

Virat Kohli’s first act of the day stemmed from forgetfulness. He went and stood at second slip, his customary position when Rohit Sharma tenants the first slip position. KL Rahul gestured to Kohli, who smiled, and went and stood in the first slip. That was the only ‘lapse’ as Kohli was actively involved in every little move through Australia’s batting innings. His last act of the day too was from memory, albeit bad muscle memory. He was livid with himself after stabbing at a back-of-length kicker from Scott Boland, edging it to slips. A day that had started brightly ended with him cursing himself on his way back to the dressing room.
Not only after the exit of Jasprit Bumrah, who left after bowling just one over after lunch citing to a back spasm even while India’s premier bowler was still on the field, Kohli took charge. He had done that to an extent at the Perth Test as well when Bumrah was the captain, taking care of the field placings but here he was a lot more animatedly involved in the process.
Kohli was buzzing all over the place- here, there, everywhere. When Sam Konstas was on strike for the 11th over, Kohli called Nitish Kumar from third man to get back to slips. Konstas took the bait, lapped Bumrah to the exact spot vacated, and Kohli pushed him back. In the next over, when Siraj took out Konstas with an away-shaper that was taken in the gully Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kohli set off on a run to try to chase down Siraj. As the bowler slowed down, looking and screaming in joy at the crowd, Kohli too would have a look at the crowd, and thump his chest, and also thump Siraj’s.
Bumrah took himself off after this, and Siraj bowled one more, his seventh, when Kohli got into the act again. Near the end of that Siraj over, Kohli gestured to Jasprit Bumrah to bring himself on to bowl. Even as Bumrah acknowledged him with a raised right hand, Kohli pounded an imaginary ball onto the turf, just in case Bumrah didn’t hear him. At the end of that over, Kohli ran to Siraj, his hand over the bowler’s shoulders as he spoke to him almost all the way to fine-leg, and gestured to Bumrah on his way back again to bowl. And Bumrah did replace Siraj next over.
At one point, he even gestured to Jasprit Bumrah, who had finished his first spell, to bring himself on to bowl. Kohli ran to the bowler Mohammad Siraj at the end of that over, put his hand over Siraj’s shoulders as he spoke to him almost all the way to fine-leg, and gestured to Bumrah on his way back again to bowl. And Bumrah did replace Siraj next over.
He kept talking and moving his fielders after lunch after Bumrah’s exit. The hands would wave, a fielder would be moved to left or right, or closer. He kept giving a thumbs-up signal from the slip to Prasidh Krishna, whenever a good line-and-length ball arrived. Krishna had perhaps been a bit nervy initially, and things could have gone pear-shaped, especially after Bumrah’s departure, but Kohli kept talking and gesturing to him. Slowly, Prasidh settled, and when he got Webster’s wicket with a kicker outside off, Kohli was very animated, running to high-five him.
He would also do the same to Nitish Reddy, signalling him to bowl in the channel outside off, draw back the length or gesture with his wrs to whip the ball down. And Australia kept losing wickets as Kohli orchestrated the field and the bowling.

As he walked back to the dressing room, Rohit Sharma was standing at the entrance with a smile. A while earlier, during lunch break, Rohit had given an interview to Star Sports where he was asked if any youngster in the team was ready for captaincy yet. “They are new boys. I know they should be given responsibility. But let them earn it. Let them play some hard-fought cricket for the next few years or whatever it is. Let them earn it,” Rohit said.
After a while, Kohli would emerge padded up, and sit on a chair, just outside the dressing room, next to the masseur. For 3.4 overs, the masseur massaged his right arm- moving from the fingers to the top and shoulder and neck and coming down again to fingers. At the end, Kohli stood up, smiled, and had a laugh and chatted with Abhishek Nayar.
A double strike would get him to go out to bat, and he strode out with his bat held on his right shoulder. He went straight to Shubman Gill to have a chat. But it would end shortly after when Boland produced almost the same ball that had dismissed him in the first innings. Kohli would put his head down and scream, wring his hand, and walk off muttering under his breath.

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