'We have played spin relatively badly' - Kohli

India have won the first Test emphatically, but Virat Kohli, their captain, conceded that India's batsmen had been playing "relatively badly" recently. He said losing wickets in a bunch was an issue, but not technique. India lost six wickets of specialist batsmen to spin. Cheteshwar Pujara played forward-defensives in both innings to balls he didn't reach the pitch of. Ajinkya Rahane drove at and defended balls he was not close to. M Vijay picked the wrong ball to sweep in the first innings, and picked the Imran Tahir wrong un' only off the pitch in the second. There he was not close to the pitch of the ball.

"See we have played spin relatively badly in the past," Kohli said. "Once it happened in Galle. I think the problem has been that we lost wickets too quickly. If we get a partnership and then we lose one, we've lost two-three. So that needs to improve. Apart from that everyone plays spin well. It's just a mindset thing. You can think of five different things while playing a stroke, thinking that the ball might go there or there as well.

"You need to think of only one thing. If you want to hit a ball somewhere, you need to think about only that. That sort of confidence is something only an individual can instil in himself. We have spoken about that, having clarity of mind, playing fearless cricket. I think that's what we are going to stress on again. Next time around the guys are going to back themselves more and face the situation front on rather than thinking what could have been done. Rather just be out there and be sure of what you want to do and have no fear in executing what you want to do."

The three players who scored some runs against spin in this Test were Vijay, Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja. They have played domestic first-class cricket. Others haven't because they have had no time off international calendar. They haven't played any Tests in India for two years either.

"Could be [the reason why they have struggled]," Kohli said. "We have played a lot of cricket away from home, and we have not played a lot of cricket on turning wickets. And we haven't played a lot of domestic cricket. That could be the case.

"Obviously there could be a reason that, it is always said that Indians are very good players of spin, Asians are very good players of spin. That might pressurise a few guys saying that we have to play spin well. And if that doesn't happen once or twice, it starts building up. It could be anything. The individuals need to be spoken to individually.

"At times we have played spin well. In the second innings is when we have not played spin well, as far as I have experienced. In the first innings we have played spin relatively well. I think it's a mindset thing where some sort of fear creeps in, and you're not able to make the right decisions. Doesn't matter if it's spin or pace. More often than not, it has happened against spin. I think that is an area we can improve on.

"We made errors rather than fear of spin. We made shot-judgement errors. We know that it has been committed; it will be reflected upon and corrected next time we come out to play."

India's batting against spin will be an important issue keeping in mind the pitches India have been playing on. Thirty-four of the 40 wickets fell to spin in Mohali, and going by all indications from what the players are talking, similar pitches can be expected in the rest of the series. Kohli again raised the issue of "green tops" outside India not getting criticised when asked if this pitch was good for Test cricket.

"If we lose in England then no one asks if the track was good or not, it's always when we play badly," Kohli said. "As Hashim [Amla] said the batsmen didn't apply themselves, and I agree with him. Those who applied got runs as well. It wasn't like teams are getting out for 50. So there is no need to unnecessarily hype up the wicket."

Kohli was asked if similar pitches could be expected in the series. "As far as the theme is concerned, I think you have to ask the curators," he said. "Not me. Eventually we do have a certain nature of Indian wickets that we get. But to make any sort of wicket that don't give you result, I don't see any logic in that. Otherwise, if you say, 'How to keep Test cricket alive?' - you need to have wickets that will give you results. So it all depends on how the person making the wicket feels about that."