AUS vs IND: Virat Kohli to hold special team meeting before leaving for India

The Indian cricket team was left red-faced by the brilliance of Australian pacers as the visitors were bundled out for 36 runs in the second innings of the Adelaide Test, which Australia comfortably won by 8 wickets with two days in hand. While India have plenty of time in hands to turn things around, they would be without their captain Virat Kohli for the remainder of the series with the talismanic batsman set to leave for India on paternity leave.

Before heading back to India, Kohli will hold a special team meeting ahead of the Boxing Day Test in the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Indian skipper will try and boost the confidence of the players as the holders of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy eye a comeback into the four-Test series after going 1-0 down.

After getting skittled out for 36 and with no batsman registering scores in double-digits, keeping the team morale high could be an issue and to motivate his teammates, Kohli would be sitting to motivate and provide confidence to the squad.

"The emphasis of the meeting will be to motivate and give confidence to the young boys for the rest of the series," a source told TOI.

Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane is set to lead the Indian team for the remaining three Test matches in Kohli’s absence.

After the Adelaide disaster, Kohli rued the lack of intent shown by the Indian batsmen on Day 3 of the match as they went on to suffer an eight-wicket defeat.

"Very hard to put those feelings into words. We had a lead of 60-odd coming and just collapsed. When you work hard for two days and put yourself in a strong position and then an hour puts you in a position where it's literally impossible to win," Kohli said in the post-match presentation.

"I think we should have showed a little more intent today. They (Australians) bowled in similar kind of areas in the first innings as well but probably our mindset was to score runs."