Mushfiqur Rahim says Virat Kohli’s basic batting level too high to match

India cricket team captain Virat Kohli feels Bangladesh cricket team batsmen could have made more runs in the Hyderabad Test had they stuck to proper basic game.

After being stretched for victory on the fifth day, India skipper Virat Kohli was asked if Bangladesh’s batting resistance in the Test impressed him. (Day 5 highlights)

Virat Kohli’s batting is something the entire cricketing world looks up to in awe and Bangladesh cricket team skipper Mushfiqur Rahim praised the India cricket team captain during the post-match press interaction after the one-off Test match in Hyderabad. (PTI)

“No. As I said it was a good wicket to bat on and if you play basic cricket, you can score runs on this kind of wicket,” said Virat Kohli. (Scorecard)

“I didn’t expect them to get out for 200-250 runs. They do have good batsmen in their ranks. They scored 580 in NZ. You know this was a good wicket to bat on and they would have some confidence coming into the series,” the India skipper added.

Asked if basic batting would have saved the game, Mushfiq said, “Kohli’s basic batting is different from our basic. He has a Test average of over 50. If we had a batsman of his calibre we would have lost only four wickets.”

Mushfiq has been under tremendous pressure with calls for his head. The Bangladesh captain was easily the best batsman of the side in this Test. He kept wickets for close to two days --- 166 overs --- and then batted for five hours before keeping the wickets again for a session.

The toil in the middle was probably too much to handle and when he had to come out to bat in the first session again, he hit a few shots before giving his wicket away.

Asked if he’d like to give up wicketkeeping to move up the order, Mushfiq said, “I can’t be a top-order batsman with a batting average of 34 (34.51). So I need to keep wickets.”