Former BCCI Chief Selector Chetan Sharma has supported Team India to come back strongly against England after losing the first Test by 28 runs in Hyderabad. He also believes that the hosts will win the rest of the games despite losing the likes of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja due to injuries. The veteran also pointed out that India were in a similar scenario during England’s last tour of India in 2020/21 when England won the opening game in Chennai, but India won the series 3-1 as well.

Chetan Sharma told India Today: “Koi tension nahi hai, 4-1 karenge (No tension, we’ll make it 4-1). Athithiyo ka Swagat kiya hai hamne, koi problem nahi (We’ve welcomed our guests, there’s no problem). Ek mistake ho jata hay (Sometimes you make a mistake). I won’t call it a mistake, they played well.”

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“Kahin na kahin ham pehla match hare hain (Somewhere we lost the opening match), toh kehte hain ki jo jeeta woh Sikander (there’s a phrase that the one who wins becomes a champion) but it’s not the case here. India have a lot of potential. We had also lost the opening Test in Chennai three years ago and then we thrashed them [England] 3-1. Similarly, history will repeat itself and in the next game, Indian team will look completely different. There’ll be aggression and according to me, we are winning the series 4-1,” he further added.

Meanwhile, India batting coach Vikram Rathour has backed Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill to return to form after failing to leave a mark in recent times. The duo needs to step up with the bats in the absence of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja.

Rathour told reporters in the pre-match press conference: “There are young batters in our team who have not played much Test cricket. So, we need to be a bit patient with them. Batters like Gill and Iyer will eventually start getting big runs, I’m sure of it.”