After suffering a disappointing 227-run loss against England in the first Test of the four-match series in Chennai, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli felt that the body language and intensity of his team weren’t up to mark and that they didn’t do enough to create pressure on the visitors on the first two days of the match. England skipper Joe Root led from the front by scoring a brilliant double century that helped them post a massive total in the first innings.
Kohli also rued the fact that the inexperienced of Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Nadeem also helped the Englishmen to rotate strikes easily. He said, “I don’t think we put enough pressure on them with the ball in the first half. Collectively as a bowling unit, fast bowlers and Ash were good in the first innings but we also needed to contain a few more runs and create pressure.”
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He further elaborated, “Having said that, it was a slow wicket and not helping the bowlers which made it easy for the batsmen to rotate the strike and get into the game. That’s a fair assessment (the fourth and fifth bowlers not being up to the mark). You need your bowling unit to step up and create pressure on the opposition. We didn’t achieve that in this game which is fine, lack of execution is acceptable but to understand our mindset was right is very important for us.”
Riding on Root’s marathon 218-run knock, the visited team managed to make a massive total of 578 runs in the first innings and then bowled India out for 337 runs, taking a huge first-innings lead. Highlighting the positives of the Indian team, Kohli said that the way bowlers performed in the second innings will definitely give them enough confidence and they will be expecting to churn out more such performances in the coming matches.
Talking about India’s positive, Virat Kohli said, “We were better in the second half of the first innings with the bat, not the first four batters. We have to understand the things that we have done decently in this game and the things that we haven’t and as a team, we are always looking to improve. England was far more professional and consistent throughout the Test match than we were.’
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The second Test of the four-match series, scheduled to be commencing on February 13 at the same venue, will mark the return of fans into the stadium and India would be hoping that they leave this loss behind and start afresh.
