Virat Kohli heard on the stump mic inspiring his boys

‘Patience’ was the buzz word leading into the West Indies v India Test series and the first Test at Antigua. From the Windies coach Phil Simmons to the Indians everyone was talking about how patience will emerge as the key to success in the Test series since matches are played on less responsive, slower wickets. Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bat first.

After he got into a partnership with opener Shikhar Dhawan for the 4th wicket things looked to shift in favor of the visiting team. The West Indies bowlers did test them from time to time and if not all at least Shannon Gabriel bowled with a lot of patience and maintained a planned line and attack strategy. But the pacer could get just one wicket and it was the leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo who had multiple wickets and was emerging as the biggest threat to the Indian pair.

Kohli, as we know, is a super inspired individual and loves to rub off his energy on his teammates. He did something similar when it looked to him that Dhawan was losing his concentration and getting restless against the spinner. The Indian Test skipper could be heard on the stump microphone saying – “He’s tiring down, he’s tiring down.”

Dhawan got out on 84 but Kohli carried on and scored the first double ton of his Test career. With the help of Ravichandran Ashwin’s hundred, Amit Mishra’s fifty and other contributions the visitors posted 566/8 before declaring their first inning. They had 16 overs to have a go at the opposition on the second day and the skipper tried a lot of tricks, implementing innovative fields and getting in most of his bowlers for a few overs. It paid off on the second last over of the day when Mohammed Shami got them the breakthrough in the form of Rajendra Chandrika’s wicket and West Indies ended the day at 31/1.

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The first session of the third day also belonged to Team India as they scalped another couple of West Indies wickets as the hosts went into Lunch at 90/3 in 44 overs trailing by 476 runs. Kohli was happy with the effort of his boys and once again was heard in the stump mic saying, “Reward for patience. Every session two, three wickets and that’s it,”