Virat Kohli and Tim Paine exchange words during day four of the second Test.
Former Australia skipper Ian Chappell felt that India captain Virat Kohli was too focussed on his duel with his Australian counterpart Tim Paine in Perth, which distracted him from his primary task of taking the visitors over the finish line.
India lost the second Test by 146 runs, allowing Australia to draw level in the four-match series.
The Test match also gained a lot of attention due to the on-field verbal battles between Kohli and Paine. The two captains had quite a bit of banter in the middle, so much so that they almost made physical contact at one point.
In his column for the Hindustan Times, Chappell said Kohli was by far the best batsman in Perth but Paine got better of him as far as the captaincy duel was concerned.
"While Kohli was far and away the best batsman in a Test where the bowlers prevailed, Tim Paine had by far the better of the captaincy duel. From the moment Kohli was dismissed in the first innings he seemed distracted by the decision and focused too much attention on Paine and not enough on the job at hand -- winning the game." Chappell wrote.
Chappell also spoke about Kohli's controversial dismissal in the first innings in Perth when the Indian captain edged Pat Cummins to second slip where Peter Handscomb appeared to get his fingers under the ball. The on-field umpires, who gave a soft signal of dismissal, referred it to the third umpire. However, the TV replays were not sufficient enough to overturn the on-field umpire's soft signal.
The incident caused a major stir on social media and left the pundits divided. Kohli was also visibly upset with the disputed decision.
Chappell said that the decision should have been taken by the on-field umpires and that sending it upstairs only invited controversy.
"The decision that appeared to derail Kohli’s thinking was yet another disputed catch sent for review to the third umpire. How can the ICC -- knowing the eminently disputable nature of the evidence -- keep sending catches to be reviewed?
"These decisions should be given by the on-field umpires who are best placed to get the right answer. For more than a hundred years this is the way low catches were adjudicated and very few decisions caused animosity.
"As it is now a guessing game off the field because of the far-shortening effect of the cameras and sending these decisions to be reviewed only causes more controversy," Chappell wrote in his column for the Hindustan Times.
The legendary Australian captain also felt that lack of support for Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara from the rest of the batting line-up is hurting the visitors.
"Having fought so hard to gain the advantage in Adelaide, India have now surrendered the upper-hand (not without a fight) and they’ll have to work extremely hard to regain superiority.
"As happened in both South Africa and England, India’s main point of concern is batting support for Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara," he concluded.
The third Test match is scheduled to start from December 26 in Melbourne.
