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Facing defeat after run of 19 unbeaten Tests, captain Kohli says India's batting performance was worst of this home season India captain Virat Kohli (C) points out marks on the pitch to
on-field umpire Richard Kettleborough (R) as Ravindra Jadeja looks on at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Saturday With the first Test finishing much earlier than what the Indians would've
hoped, the entire Indian team and support staff came out after the defeat to play a game of volleyball with the foot. There was no laughing around as there usually is in such sessions during
India's training on the match eve. There were no jumps, no high-fives, no hugs. Everyone was merely kicking the ball like a machine at the other side of the line of chairs playing the
role of the net. The exercise finished when the third day's play was supposed to, at 4.30pm, and the players walked back to the dressing room without there being too much chatter.
Despite this loss coming after 19 consecutive unbeaten Tests for India, it's clear it has rattled the players a bit. A bad game after a string of great ones was always on the cards, but
not of this scale. "We needed something like this for us to get a reality check," India captain Virat Kohli said, adding, "and understand what are the things that we need to
work on. (We should) not take anything for granted at any stage, especially at the Test level." It was a reality check indeed, especially for the batsmen. Indians are known to play spin
better than any other team in the world, but Kohli and his batting unit gave a dim glimpse of it after shining bright for much of this season. "I would say this was our worst batting
performance and we need to accept that. We need to accept that we batted badly, and we need to improve on things. "Our batting wasn't up to standard and that's certainly how
we shouldn't bat from here onwards. The batsmen need to pull their socks up," Kohli said after the day's play on Saturday. Kohli put the failure of the batsmen completely down
to lack of application. Why, he even refused to give too much credit to the Australian bowling attack, saying the Indian batting made them look better than what they were. "If you
don't apply yourself, any bowling attack can look dangerous. It's as simple as that. Even a part-timer can get four wickets if you don't apply yourself. And I certainly would
like to think that that was the case with our batting line-up in this game. It rarely happens that four-five batsmen make errors in judgement in both the innings, especially with the way we
batted in the last few months," Kohli said. Batting aside, the bowling wasn't too beautiful either. Yes, India did pick up 20 wickets but they came at a premium, of 260 and 285
runs in the first and second innings, respectively. But neither was the India captain willing to blame his bowlers, nor analyse too much of the team's performance in this Test. "I
wouldn't think too much about this Test. If after 18 or 19 Tests, we play one bad game, you have to accept that it's part of international cricket. I don't know if people were
thinking that we couldn't lose at all, but in our mind there was no such thing. If we don't play good cricket, then any team can beat us," he said. "It's now about
coming back stronger in Bangalore. There's still lot of cricket to go in the series and we are certainly sure of showing the same intent that we have done in the past," Kohli
added. Trust Kohli to rally his troops around. The high-fives during training are bound to be back after a couple of days.