Virat Kohli revealed that it was Ajinkya Rahane who wanted five bowlers for Dharamsala Test

India won the final Test of the series without the captaincy of Virat Kohli because the stand-in-captain Ajinkya Rahane ensured the void was not felt and led the side with smart decisions. Kohli praised Rahane for opting to play five bowlers in the Dharamsala Test and asserted that the inclusion of Kuldeep Yadav was very instrumental in regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

At the end of the match press conference, Kohli revealed, “I spoke to jinks (Rahane) before the game. I said this is your game, you have to be comfortable with playing four or five bowlers. He instantly said ‘five bowlers’ because he understands the workload of the guys throughout the whole season. To keep pushing two guys (Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja) to take wickets regularly is a bit unfair when the body is tired and is taken a toll.”

He also said that coach Anil Kumble, Rahane and himself had a discussion on the fifth bowler. Kuldeep was the X factor, and India hadn’t played him. He turned out to be the difference in the game picking four crucial wickets in the first inning. It was a great call to include him in the playing eleven.

India usually prefers to play five bowlers, but after Pune, they felt that their batting line-up needed some more power and that is when the six batsmen theory was adopted in the Bengaluru Test, and the hosts notched up a 75-run victory. This formula was repeated in the third Test at Ranchi but the absence of an extra bowler weakened India’s chances of forcing a result on a batting-friendly pitch.

Ajinkya Rahane reinforced the bowling attack by going back to the 5 bowlers theory, and the results were very evident as Kuldeep and Umesh ripped through the Australian line-up on the first day of the final Test.