In the opening Test of the five-match series, England stunned India by defeating them by 28 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. After giving up a 190-run advantage in the first inning, the Ben Stokes-led team didn’t give up as Ollie Pope spearheaded a stunning comeback with 196, and subsequently, rookie Tom Hartley hit a seven-for-two to dismiss India for 202.
India’s skipper Rohit Sharma has come under fire after the team lost because he did not take initiative in leading his team during the second innings, which allowed England to rally.
The latest to attack Rohit’s strategies is former England captain Michael Vaughan, who claims that India wouldn’t have lost the opening Test if Virat Kohli had been captain.
“They really missed Virat Kohli leading them in Test cricket. India wouldn’t have dropped the match if Virat had been captain that week. Rohit is a fantastic player and a legend. However, I thought he simply turned off entirely,” Michael Vaughan stated in his Telegraph column.
Speaking further forward, Vaughan criticized Rohit’s captaincy performance, emphasizing his incapacity to oppose Ollie Pope’s sweep tactic when facing the spinners.
“I felt that Rohit Sharma led the team in a very mediocre manner. He didn’t seem to be proactive with his bowling changes or field management, in my opinion, because he was so reactive. Furthermore, he was unable to respond to Ollie Pope’s sweeps or reversal sweeps,” he continued.
England is full of confidence following their first Test victory.
Earlier, India lacked Kohli’s intensity on the field in the second inning, according to former England spinner Monty Panesar. Remarkably, the top batsman withdrew from the first two Test matches for personal reasons. With KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja out of the lineup, India will be missing a valuable player in the second Test.
Because of this, Captain Rohit has a lot on his mind concerning his tactics and the lineup for the second Test. Conversely, England’s Bazball tactic has allowed them to dismiss India with the first blow. They’ll be full of confidence after an unlikely victory going into the second Test, which starts in Visakhapatnam on Friday, February 2.
India
