England vs India: Virat Kohli in no mood to crib, asks team to make it 2-1 at Trent Bridge

For captain Virat Kohli, the much-anticipated Test series against England is turning out to be an anti-climax. India were annihilated at Lord’s by an innings and 159 runs – the first innings defeat in the Kohli era – and not many are able to see a lot of hope for the remaining three Tests either. But the captain refused to give it up and urged his teammates to bounce back at Trent Bridge to make the scoreline 2-1.

Team India collapsed in their second innings to be bundled out for 130 after coming in to bat with a 289-run deficit in the first innings. Ravichandran Ashwin remained not out on 33 to end and was the top scorer for India while Kohli himself had an ordinary outing, managing just 40 runs in two innings clearly struggling with his back in the second. Opener Murali Vijay got out for a pair while Cheteshwar Pujara fell for 17 having faced 84 balls after being run out for a solitary run in the first essay.

Kohli, however, was in no mood to rue and regret about conditions that prevailed in the Lord’s Test and instead asked his colleagues to shoulder the responsibility to see a different outcome in the third Test starting August 18. India were asked to bat first by England after captain Joe Root won the toss and were bowled out for 107 under overcast conditions. The hosts then declared their innings at 396 for 7.

We have to correct our mistakes

“People are saying that we batted in overcast conditions … if we dwell on those things, we’ll be unable to plan. We can’t think about what could have happened in the game because we have to correct our mistakes. We have no option other than that,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference.

“For a sportsman, it’s important that if we make mistakes we ensure they’re corrected, and as a team, we’ll look to focus on that. The fact is we didn’t play good cricket in this match. Batting wasn’t good. As for bowling, we began well but were unable to hit areas consistently. We could have done a lot better with both bat and ball,” Kohli said, as per icc.com.

The loss at Lord’s meant under Kohli’s captaincy, India have lost four of their last five Test matches and won just one.

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