The England India Test Match this week at Edgbaston has surely got to rank as one of the most competitive Tests in England’s 1000 Test history. It swung back and forth all the way through and the crowd played its full part, turning up the volume, raising their hands and roaring in excitement watching the young Sam Curran display flair and exuberance during his 63 off 65 balls on the third day. For all the brilliance of both of Virat Kohli’s innings, Curran’s innings was the game changer and as it turned out the match winning one as well.

However if it hadn’t been for Virat Kohli’s 149 in the first innings, the Test Match would have not turned out to be the thriller it was. If Malan had caught Kohli on 21, India would have been bowled out for 146 and there would never have been that skilful marshalling of the tail. Nagraj Gollapudi said on ESPN Cricinfo that Kohli was “let down by his own men”. That is certainly true but Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav stood up for him. This is one problem the Indian team faces. Or is it a problem? There have been a few comparisons between Kohli and the over reliance someone like Sachin Tendulkar faced in the 1990s. But I feel that would not be doing justice to the current crop of Test cricketers India have.

Someone like Ajinkya Rahane is a proven performer overseas as is Murali Vijay. There are still many overseas Tests left for them to show their class as well as younger less experienced blokes like KL Rahul or Hardik Pandya to hone their batting skills. Just because the series was lost in South Africa and India’s batsmen generally struggled, that doesn’t mean they can’t turn it around. When watching the Test Match, the pundits on Sky Sports showed slow motion replays of Virat Kohli standing outside of his crease playing the ball late with soft hands. In 2014, his problem was nicking the balls outside the off stump that he said was result of “expecting the inswinger too much” which therefore left him exposed to the outswinger. He has a shown that desire and determination to leave balls outside off stump. The specialist batsmen just need to look at their captain for inspiration and support him. I’d be silly and foolish to suggest they need to change their style of play but perhaps some like Shikhar Dhawan should practice playing the waiting game because he’s a glorious stroke maker but perhaps where he’s been found out overseas is his desire to keep going hard at the ball.

But my point is it is clear these batsmen can learn. The perfect example is Hardik Pandya. Now there are some who are quick to judge Pandya and to say they are not convinced. One match is too small a sample size but what people may not realise is that barring Kohli, Pandya was the only other player in the Indian team to face over 100 balls in the Test Match. On television, it showed Pandya making the same adjustment Kohli did; standing outside of his crease. Kohli has scored a lot of the runs, but in truth he endured his fair share of luck. If he got caught on 21, what questions would be being asked of him at this moment? So let’s not say India are heavily reliant on Virat Kohli. Indian cricket fans had good reason to feel this way about Sachin Tendulkar in the ‘90s because at that time Ganguly, Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman were yet to emerge.

One way I think India could take the burden off Kohli is playing Cheteshwar Pujara at No.3. I’m not sure who it is they will leave out but I would like to see a banker at No.3. Sure you can say Pujara has a modest overseas batting record but it is easy to forget the kind of situations he comes in to face. In 2014 when India won at Lord’s, he “only” made 28 in the first innings but he faced down the toughest conditions of that Test and while he only made “50” in the Johannesburg Test earlier this year yet again he battled tough conditions.       

However in recent times it is clear India have needed Kohli to win.  In Johannesburg, he scored 54 and 41 and then had a one day series which followed that saw him reach new unparalleled heights. Even in the one day series in England, while he didn’t make a hundred, once again it was he who consistently scored runs. But he has a pool of batsmen around him that have history behind them when it comes to overseas performances. Maybe they just need to be told that in the coming matches they will have a day like Virat Kohli where everything goes for them. Kohli showed he’s only human when he edged the ball after being tormented and preyed on by his nemesis James Anderson who was awesome to watch. But he had his luck.

Virat Kohli said his batsmen needed to apply themselves better. For all we know maybe that’s all they need to do to start scoring big hundreds like their captain: play the waiting game and just apply concentration. Does that happen by the team making a change or by the batsmen already in the side being backed to deal with the mistakes they made themselves?