The Adelaide Test That Changed India Through Karn Sharma’s Eyes

Virat Kohli leading his team out of the ground. (PC: BCCI)

On 30 June 2020, Virat Kohli took to social media to revisit a Test match that had taken place six years earlier: the 2014 Adelaide Test. It was an unusual trip down memory lane. By then, India were sitting at the top of the ICC Test rankings, a far cry from the side that had walked into Adelaide in 2014 struggling for consistency in the longest format.

India had lost that Test by 48 runs, yet the defeat remained special to Kohli. It was not merely because it was his first Test as captain. Adelaide was where Kohli, the leader, truly began to take shape.

Kohli made a dream start to his captaincy career with the bat, scoring centuries in both innings. Australia set India a target of 364 in the fourth innings. Anything over 300 is difficult to chase in the fourth innings even today. Back then, it was a young Indian team up against a full-strength Australian side.

India could have opted for the cautious route and tried to draw the game. Instead, Kohli’s message was to go for the target.

“We weren’t surprised when Virat said that we would go for the run-chase, given how he has played his cricket from the start till now,” Karn Sharma tells RevSportz. “He has always maintained that if someone says something, you’ve got to give it back. For him, it wasn’t easy, his first Test series as captain, but the way he motivated the team was standout.”

For Karn, everything in Adelaide was unfamiliar. It was his first Test and, as it turned out, his only one. So when Kohli sent out the message to chase the target rather than retreat into safety, Karn was taken aback. Yet, knowing Kohli, perhaps he should not have been surprised.

It was a turning point, the moment a different belief began to take root in Indian cricket. From then on, the idea was no longer simply to survive against the best, but to stand up, fight back and believe that victory was always within reach.

“We couldn’t win the game, but that Adelaide game was the shift in approach. Indian cricket was changed,” Karn said. “Earlier, we didn’t use to give it back, but under Virat, it was about hitting back if someone’s trying to get under your skin.”

Australia brought the heat throughout that series, with words flying as freely as runs. The Australians tried to get under Kohli’s skin, but instead they seemed to awaken something in him. He answered their provocation with his voice first and then with his bat, producing a remarkable series with 692 runs to match the fire.

Soon after, with MS Dhoni’s retirement, Kohli inherited the Test captaincy. What followed was a change in India’s identity. The team no longer travelled abroad simply to take part. They travelled believing they could challenge the strongest sides on their own turf and leave with victories.

Adelaide was not simply the story of a match India had lost. As Karn saw it, it was the opening chapter of Kohli’s transformation from a batter wearing the captain’s armband into a leader who would go on to reshape Indian Test cricket.

The post The Adelaide Test That Changed India Through Karn Sharma’s Eyes appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Consistent Nicholas Pooran can be world’s top T20 batter

Image
Nicholas Pooran’s carnage against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Image: IPL He has always had a calmness about him. A very West Indian relaxed kind of mindset and demeanour. And having seen adversity, he knows that one needs to celebrate and value the good that comes your way. The urge to keep getting better, and be the best version of oneself, is what defines the new Nicholas Pooran. That’s what came through in the candid conversations we had on the IPL and his own approach to batting. Not overawed by the 21-crore price tag or the weight of expectations, Pooran is simply going about his job. He knows he can hit the ball miles and is keeping it simple. Go and do what you do best for hours and hours at practice, and in doing so, help your team Lucknow Super Giants] demolish opponents. “The best part about this franchise is they have never put me under pressure,” he told me. “When you are paid a lot of money, there is always pressure. Not so much from outside but from within. You know you ne...
Read more

Turning the clock back by 0.12 seconds

Image
MS Dhoni with a stumping dismissal against MI in the IPL 2025 in Chennai (PC: BCCI) The moment of the Chennai Super Kings-Mumbai Indians match lasted less than half a second. It was the 11 th over of the MI innings. Suryakumar Yadav was bringing the batting side back in the game. Noor Ahmad beat him on a forward charge, the ball spun away, and the right-hander’s hind leg got off the ground before he planted it back. That was all MS Dhoni needed to brush the bails off. At a packed MA Chidambaram Stadium decked in yellow and chanting his name, that was the only occasion when Dhoni was in ‘action’. It showed that at 43, his reflexes have not slackened and he has got sharper in plotting dismissals. This one was replayed on TV again and again during the match and commentators couldn’t help but keep talking about it. He had conceded four byes on the leg side in the same over. But this was the Dhoni who elevated stumping to another level. When it comes to waiting for batters to err wit...
Read more

From scoring ton in Patna to taking on bouncers like a ‘bullet’ in Perth – Nitish’s story of perseverance

Image
Nitish Kumar Reddy during the 1st innings of the Perth Test (PC: Debasis Sen) “Grateful, an innings to remember.” Nitish Reddy had posted the aforesaid statement on his Instagram account after cracking his maiden first-class hundred, against Bihar, in Patna. It wasn’t just about Nitish scoring an unbeaten 159 for Andhra. It was also about the way he scored those runs. He essayed a few crunchy drives off Veer Pratap Singh and also showcased his range of shots against Ashutosh Aman, the left-arm spinner, by playing with the turn and also against the turn. This hundred from Nitish came just before the 2024 IPL season, where he accumulated 303 runs. Once again, it wasn’t just about Nitish accruing 303 runs as he accumulated them with a touch of class. Soon, the Indian think-tank drafted the all-rounder into the limited-overs set-up. Although he missed the Zimbabwe series because of a hernia problem, it was crystal clear that the coaching staff had a vision – to pick him for the tour o...
Read more