Apart from the captain himself, big names of Indian batting order failed to impress in the first Test against England.
India suffered a heartbreaking loss after the most dramatic day at Edgbaston on Saturday. But keeping his head high, Indian skipper Virat Kohli cheered for the game than letting the spirit down for the remainder of the series.
Virat Kohli scored 200 runs in both the innings that had the highest total of 287 runs. Speaks volumes about the skill and level of the game played by the man. But it also highlights the failure of Indian top order that features names like KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay and now Dinesh Karthik. Most of these guys seemed to be struggling against the England bowling squad. While Kohli held the fort from one side of the pitch, it looked like a game of dominoes on the other end during both the innings.
Making note of it, after the match, Kohli said, "There's a lot to learn from the lower order. In first innings, Ishant and Umesh stuck in there. Again, Ishant showed character here, Umesh stuck it out with Hardik so those kinds of things make you feel like as top order batsmen we need to apply ourselves better. Just look at ourselves in the mirror. There's no hiding from this game. We have to step on the field. Whatever you are feeling inside will come out in no time. We just got to be positive fearless, enjoy our cricket. Try to take the negatives out of the equation, look at the positives and build on those."
Praising the lower order the skipper continued, "We definitely need to apply ourselves more with the bat. I think the bowlers were outstanding in the second innings they responded very well. A great comeback by England and show resilience. We can come back as a team to start against a big team like England in England and hopefully we can build from here.
"We showed character, but a team like England will not let you do that every day of a Test match. We realised that on the final day. They were relentless in the areas they hit. They made us work hard for those runs. We definitely could have applied ourselves better. But I am still proud of the fight we showed and set up the series really nicely. It's going to be exciting for people to watch and enjoy Test cricket over the next few weeks," he added.
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