India vs England: Virat Kohli dismisses idea of playing extra batsman

For a team that collapsed like a house of cards twice in four days, Virat Kohli’s promise to not buttress the batting by playing an additional batsman for the next Test at The Oval sounded like misplaced contempt for suggestions put up by experts. India were rolled over for 78 in the first innings at Headingley after winning the toss and choosing to bat and on Day 4 they lost 8 wickets for 63 to be dismissed for 278 in the second innings.
Experts of the stature of Sunil Gavaskar have spoken about playing a proper batsman at No. 6 in bowler-friendly conditions instead of someone like Rishabh Pant who has looked clueless so far in England.
But Kohli is adamant about stick with his plans. You are talking about a pure batsman?” he reeled off when asked about the possibility of playing an extra batsman in the next match. I don’t believe in that balance and I have never believed in that balance because either you can try and save a defeat, or you can try and win a game. And we have drawn games in the past with a similar number of batters,” Kohli argued.

“If your top six (including keeper) don’t do the job there is no guarantee that the extra guy can bail you out. You have to take pride in taking responsibility and doing the job for the team,” he said.
“The reason he wants to stick with the five-bowler theory is because it helps him in dismissing sides twice without tiring them much. “If you don’t have the ability or resources to take 20 wickets in a Test match, then you are already playing for two results and that’s not how we play,” Kohli countered.
Sounding gruff at being repeatedly probed in the post-match conference, Kohli offered an unusual response when asked if there were injury concerns with Ishant Sharma as the experienced bowler was struggling with rhythm. “I am not obviously watching his run-up as I am standing in the slips,” Kohli said before adding, “I watch the bat of the batsman and I am not analysing how he (Ishant) is moving in the field. I think he moved like the last game. There was no issue whatsoever and as a batting group we failed in the first innings and in the second innings, we did a much better job. As a bowling group also, we accept that we were not consistent enough. That’s it,” he said.

Kohli, however, did confirm that there could be some changes in the bowling line-up going forward. “That’s bound to happen as it’s a logical and sensible thing to do. We don’t want to push individuals to a place where they break down and that conversation is important.
“We will have that conversation with individuals, and you can’t expect that in a short turnaround like this, guys can play four Test matches in a row. So, we will assess who are the guys who will be given that many number of days to recover and be okay for the fifth one,” he said.