Former England captain Michael Vaughan said England would not have managed to script a comeback in the first Test against India in Hyderabad had the hosts been led by Virat Kohli. Vaughan questioned Rohit Sharma’s tactics and body language in the series opener in which the much-fancied Indian team was handed a shocking loss.
India were in the driver’s seat in the Hyderabad Test, taking a 190-run lead after bundling out England for 246 in the first innings. Bazball critics were feeling validated when England were far behind in the series opener as India gave the tourists a dose of their own medicine with fearless batting in the first innings.
However, it all changed in the second innings when Ollie Pope took the attack to the Indian spinners, including the spin twins of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, as he employed the reverse-sweeps to unsettle their plans. Pope hit 196 in the third innings as England managed 420 runs in their second innings to set India a tricky target of 231.
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, especially when Ollie Pope was stitching partnerships with lower-order batters, came under the scanner as India looked flat on Day 3 and Day 4 of the first Test.
“They miss Virat Kohli’s captaincy massively in Test cricket. Under Virat’s captaincy that week, India wouldn’t have lost the game,” Vaughan said on Club Prairie Fire show.
“Rohit is a legend and a great player. But I felt he just switched off completely,” the former England batter added.
India lost a Test match at home for the first time after taking a 100-plus lead in the first innings. Notably, no opposition team scored more than 400 runs in their second innings in a Test match in India under Virat Kohli’s captaincy.
Virat Kohli opted to quit as the captain of the Test team after India’s tour of South Africa in 2022. It came as a surprise as the former skipper found incredible success in red-ball cricket. Kohli lost only 2 home Tests out of 31 in his tenure while Rohit has already lost 2 in 7 matches. India are winless at home for a stretch of 3 matches for the first time after 12 Tests.
It’s not going to get any easier for Rohit Sharma’s India as the hosts have been hit by injury concerns. While Virat Kohli will not play the 2nd Test, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were also ruled out of the next one in Vizag due to injuries.
