India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli reveals miscommunication led to confusion between Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant for number 4

After the loss in the 3rd T20I, Indian captain Virat Kohli has backed the young players to come good and said that, the side will continue to back the attacking mindset and continue to go for the kill from ball 1. “The idea was to come out of our comfort zone and try to get that big score. But we quickly realized that the pitch did not allow us to keep doing that,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference.

Kohli was asked about it at the post-match press conference after South Africa emerged winners by nine wickets. “I think there was a miscommunication. That was what I understood afterwards,” he said.

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“The batting coach had a word with both of them. There was a misunderstanding over who has to go at what stage,” Kohli said. “It was a little funny as well afterwards because they both wanted to walk in. So it would have been very funny if both reached the pitch, you know three batsmen in the field.” Asked who was originally slated to bat at number four, Kohli said they “had plans” according to phases.

“I think after 10 overs what we had decided was that Rishabh would walk in, and before that, Shreyas had to walk in. But I think both of them got confused and didn’t realise who has to walk in at what stage of the game,” Kolhi said.

The three-match T20I series ended in a 1-1 draw and now both the teams will compete against each other for a three-match Test series, starting from October 2. Kohli expressed his confidence for the Test series saying that, in their own conditions, India is always going to be a challenging team for any opposition.

(With PTI inputs)