No, he's right. A match can take up to five days to complete, plenty of time. So ideally you want to bat first, post 850 or 900-2 by just after teatime on the second day. Even if you subsequently "collapse" to 1000-4 at stumps, you still control the game and are on course for a comfortable victory. The batsmen will have done their job, for the team.
He was talking about tactics and strategery, rather than performance and style.