Let’s get some energy, Kohli tells crowd

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

kolkata, october 3

When India got thrashed 4-0 in England in 2011, the atmosphere at the Test in Edgbaston in Birmingham was festive — the whole stadium, drunk on beer and joy, sang in unison songs of victory. For Indian visitors, such occasions are occasions of revelations — that we don’t have any songs of victory in sport, that our cheers are limited to banal ones like “jeetega bhai jeetega, India jeetega” or, worse, “Sachin, Sachin”.

Overseas, the involvement of the excited fans in the action, through sound and noise, can cause nervousness to India’s batsmen, as Virat Kohli revealed today. Indeed, in times when Test cricket was healthier in India, visiting cricketers were shaken by the intimidating noise of Kolkata’s iconic Eden Gardens.

Kohli tried to rouse the 12,000-odd spectators at Eden Gardens today. As Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar charged in to bowl in the day’s final session, Kohli turned to face the stands and urged the crowd to make a noise. They responded the best they could and presented a minor recap of how things used to be here in the good old days.

Noise abroad

“We experience that when we go to Australia, when we go to England, South Africa,” Kohli said later. “They get a couple of wickets and the crowd gets behind really loud. As a batsman you understand that it creates a lot of pressure, you feel nervous. So I just try to think as a batsman, how I would feel. Walking in, the ball is reverse-swinging and the crowd is going mad behind a bowler who is warm, who is willing to take a wicket. It makes a huge difference.”

“We were able to pick up two, three wickets. The crowd also loves it, you engage them for the betterment of the team,” he added. “A bowler who is tired can... Shami would have bowled three overs but he fed off the energy and he bowled 12 more balls for the team, got another wicket.”

Each time a Test is played in India, the attendance at the ground becomes a vital point of discussion. It happened in Kanpur, it happened here, and it’s going to happen in Indore, which will host a Test for the first time ever later this week. It’s imperative to provide “exciting” cricket, most analysts agree. Kohli spoke with passion about it today. “It’s our responsibility to keep Test cricket where it belongs, and if we play cricket like this...” the captain said, before continuing: “You saw how engaged the crowd was today. They like to see exciting cricket, and we have to provide it. You have to interact with them, you have to make sure they are a part of the whole thing. You feed off their energy. It happens so much in limited overs, so why not in Test cricket?”

Why, indeed. It’s up to Kohli to walk the talk by playing exciting cricket; he’d be greatly assisted in that effort if India rolls out tracks that allow for a fair contest between bat and ball.