Former Indian player Arun Lal has backed Virat Kohli after India lost the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship and his captaincy, as well as team selection, came under the scanner. Moreover, Kohli too couldn’t do well.
He scored 44 and 13 in both innings. However, Lal said that all the Indian batsmen looked vulnerable against the Dukes ball and it is not fair to blame Virat Kohli alone. Notably, Kyle Jamieson dismissed him twice in the match as well.
“We can’t really say it was a bad shot. Your foot is two feet away from the ball and you still hit it for a boundary, everyone then says it’s a classy shot. But if you miss a similar kind of ball and it takes the edge, people will then say, ‘No footwork, playing away from the body. Horrible shot’. That’s not the way you should deal with it. Besides, all our batsmen looked vulnerable against the Dukes ball. Why blame Virat alone?” Lal told the Telegraph.
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“Virat made a mistake, and that happens. There’s so much pressure on him, while the ball was also moving a lot in such conditions. Prior to that, he was covering for the ball that came in as he was LBW last time. Now, if you are unlucky, you will nick it. Besides, that was a very good spell by (Kyle) Jamieson (in the second innings),” Lal concluded.
Meanwhile, New Zealand head coach Gary Stead has recently shared how New Zealand has planned to defeat India in the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. They put up 249 runs in the first innings where opened Davon Conway scored 54 and skipper Kane Williamson scored 49 as well.
In the second innings, the New Zealand pace attack damaged the Indian pace attack and they were bowled out for 170, setting a target of 139 runs as well. And, New Zealand chased it down with ease and won the game by 8 wickets.
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While speaking with the Niche Sports YouTube Channel, coach Gary Stead said that New Zealand had hoped to bat a little longer in the first innings as they knew about the Indian spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja both would play in the game.
He said: “We were actually hoping to bat a little bit longer than we did and hopefully score some more runs. We thought first-innings runs were going to be very important on a pitch that was wearing and we knew (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja were going to become more and more apparent in the game as it went on.”
