Loss the reality check we needed: Kohli

India captain Virat Kohli says the 333-run loss to Australia in the first Test in Pune was the “reality check” his side needed after 18 months of undefeated dominance.

Kohli squarely put the blame on the emphatic defeat on his side’s batting after the hosts were bowled out for scores of 105 and 107 in 74 overs across two innings.

Under Kohli’s captaincy, India had not lost a Test since August, 2015 when Sri Lanka recorded an upset 63-run victory in Galle. Between then and now, India had gone 19 Tests without losing.

Despite the crushing loss, the 28-year-old isn’t ringing the alarm bells yet, and said the defeat will do his side a world of good ahead of the second Test, which starts in a week’s time in Bangalore.

“It’s just another international game, it’s no big deal.” Kohli said on Saturday after play.

Quick Single: Australia spin way to massive victory

“It’s how you should stay calm and composed when you win, you shouldn’t get overexcited. The same way you react when you lose, something that you take on the chin.

“We take failures and losses as an opportunity to learn.

“And the last time we had a performance like this (in Galle), we had the most outstanding run after that.

“I would say that we needed something like this for us to get a reality check and understand what are the things we need to work on, keep persisting with it and not take anything for granted at any stage, especially in Test match cricket at the international cricket.”

Over the course of the 19-match unbeaten run, which included only four draws, India’s lowest margin of victory was 108 runs, with three wins by an innings.

The stunning form made them overwhelming favourites to beat an Australian side that hadn’t tasted victory in the subcontinent for more than 4,000 days stretching back to October, 2004.

Quick Single: O'Keefe spins into record books

Which makes the loss and disastrous batting performance in Pune even more stunning.

India were behind the eight-ball right from the start when Steve Smith won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that spun from ball and kept spinning throughout the three days of play.

Left-arm spinner Stephen O’Keefe was the architect behind the commanding win, taking 12-70 and sparking a seismic first-innings collapse of 7-11.

It’s there on day two, when India were bowled out for 105 and relinquished a 155-run lead, where the hosts lost the Test, according to Kohli.

“The way we batted in the first innings we put ourselves under a lot of pressure, to be honest,” Kohli said.

Quick Single: Smith leads from the front with epic ton

“Conceding a (155-run) lead on that sort of wicket is criminal.

“If you’re close enough to the first innings total than the bowlers mindset is different in the second innings.

“The moment you give away 60-70 runs the game is drifting and it’s very difficult to pull things back, even a single run hurts from there on.

“I would say us batsmen put us in that position where it was very difficult for us to come back into the game. I’m not blaming the bowlers at all; they tried their level best. Someone like Umesh (Yadav) bowling really well in the first innings was great to see on a slowish wicket.

“The batting was not up to standard and that’s certainly how we shouldn’t bat from here on is all I can say.”

Quick Single: Pre-series prediction that came back to bite

Kohli, who fell for his first duck on Indian soil and made only 13 in the second innings, is confident that his star-studded batting line-up will not suffer the same slump in the second Test.

“If you don’t apply yourself out there in the middle any bowling attack can look dangerous,” he said.

“It’s as simple as that.

“Even a part-timer can get four wickets if you don’t apply yourself.

“I certainly would like to think that was the case with our bating line-up in this game.

“It rarely happens that four-five people make judgement errors in both the innings.

“It very rarely happens, especially with the way we’ve batted in the past few months.

“I would say this is our worst batting performance and we need to accept that.

“We need to accept that we bated badly and we need to improve on things and come back stronger in Bangalore.” 

Test Squads

India (for first two Tests): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Hardik Pandya.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Australia's schedule in India

Feb 17-19, Tour match v India A, Mumbai

Feb 23-27, First Test: Australia won by 333 runs, Pune

Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru

Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi

Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala