After giving a tough fight in the series opener of the 5-match Test series, Team India has now started practicing in London where they face the hosts in the second Test of the series at the iconic Lord’s. Ahead of the next game, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels that the team should’ve won the Edgbaston Test.
In was the English all-rounder Ben Stokes, who picked up four wickets in the second innings, his spell pushed India onto the backfoot as the visitors lost the game by 31 runs. Sehwag reckons that the batsmen should have shown more intent as he opined that Virat can’t make India win all the games on his own and needs support from the others. After their impressive performances, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan, Sharma and Virat Kohli will be confident heading into the next match.
During a chat on India TV, Viru said, “India should have won the first Test. The batsmen spoiled all the good things done by the bowlers. Only three players will be confident ahead of Lord’s and they are Kohli, Ashwin and Ishant. They all performed well at Edgbaston and will be confident going into Lord’s. But India can’t win the match with just three players. All the 11 players need to contribute.”
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The 39-year-old also opined that Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan to open with Cheteshwar Pujara to follow but the team management decided to bring in the in-form KL Rahul. Rahul’s two consecutive failures have attracted a lot of criticism but he should be given more chances according to Sehwag.
Sehwag elaborated, “If KL Rahul played the first Test then I think he should play the second match too. Because if you drop a player after just one match, it will definitely hurt his confidence. I think a player should get at least one full series and then if he fails to perform, you can drop that particular player from the team and give chance to others.”
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Former Indian opener further added, “Team rankings do not matter in cricket. If you play well on a particular day, you will win. I felt sad to see India play poorly on those three days in Birmingham. The bowlers did a good job but the batting wasn’t good. If there would have been one batsman who could have supported Kohli in the first innings then India would have got a lead of 50-60 runs. The margin of our defeat was just 31 runs.”
Team India will be hoping for a strong comeback in the second Test when they take the field at the Lord’s. The game is set to begin on Thursday (9th August).
