Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif believes the second Test match against Sri Lanka would not have ended in a draw if former skipper Virat Kohli was still playing. Kohli was known for his aggressive captaincy in the red-ball format and got the best out of his players.

Furthermore, Kohli never gave an inch to the opposition and was always in the ear of the opponents. Meanwhile, India had Sri Lanka on the mat at the end of the fourth day’s play but could not close out the game as the hosts batters showed all the gumption.

Sri Lanka had a lead of only 16 runs, with four wickets in hand at stumps on day four but Indian bowlers were not at their best.

Mohammad Kaif said on his YouTube Channel, “Playing Test cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea, boss. It is a very long game, and you have to keep bowling continuously. I felt that if someone like Virat Kohli had been playing this match, he would have been constantly shouting and keeping his team switched on. At times, I felt we took things for granted, thinking, ‘Just keep bowling, it will happen. The ball is turning so much, it will happen on its own.’”

Kaif highlighted that India lacked in their energy levels on the final day of the Test match and it could have been a different story if Kohli had been part of the team.

“We created very few things ourselves. Our energy levels were also very low. That is why I am saying, if Virat Kohli had been playing this Test match, the result would have been different. The reason is that he would have been telling everyone, ‘Come on, Sarfaraz, come on, Jaiswal,’ and he would have gone after Sonal as well. Who were we getting into confrontations with? We were getting into confrontations with Kumara.”

The former UP batter noted that India could not create any pressure on Sonal Dinusha, who scored an unbeaten knock of 133 runs in the second innings.

“The player we actually needed to get out was Sonal, I saw a video of him saying something like, ‘Look at their faces, look at their faces.’ I just saw a video where he was saying this to Kumara in their local language. Basically, he was saying, ‘Look at their faces.’ The authority he had while batting showed that there was no pressure on him at all.”

India won the two-match Test series by 1-0 as they had won the Galle Test by 165 runs.