Former cricketer Maninder Singh has slammed at Team India captain Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri for their “huge blunder” as they chose to bat first at Headingley after winning the toss. The former Indian spinner was not happy with Shastri as despite being aware of the conditions they stick to batting.

While speaking on the subject during an interaction with ESPNcricinfo, Maninder Singh said: “Stuart Broad tweeted about this too that the ball only seams around for the first four hours and that’s the best time to bowl. I also believe that you should bat first after winning the toss but you should look at the conditions as well. And when you saw the overcast conditions, you should have changed the decision you perhaps took last night.”

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He further added: “The issue I have is how Virat Kohli, who is so experienced and then Ravi Shastri, who played and won at this ground in 1986, played so much county cricket, made such a huge blunder? That, too, after knowing that neither he (Virat Kohli) himself nor Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are in good form… that’s why I believed they should have bowled first after winning the toss.”

Meanwhile, Team India could only manage 78 runs in their first innings and failed to take a single wicket of the hosts as they posted an unbeaten 120 runs as well.

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“You will see the change (in body language) now. Ravi Shastri is a very tough taskmaster, he has played tough cricket… there will be a big team meeting today and the attitude they’ll have then will be different. The best possible thing would be to get England out by Tea so as to avoid a match-winning lead. India still have the chance to come back, I feel both teams always have a chance until the Test match is over… whenever they have their backs against the wall they have come back stronger. I’ll hope they’ll do that here as well,” Maninder Singh concluded.