England vs India: Wasim Jaffer warned against over-reliance on Kohli but India did just that

Former Indian Test opener Wasim Jaffer feels India will need an all-round effort if wants to have an upper hand over England in the ongoing Test series. The 40-year-old batsman, who is still a regular in India’s domestic cricket, recently spoke about Virat Kohli’s batting and highlighted that the rest of the team could not only depend on him.

As Kohli came into the series with a lot of talks over his failure in the 2014 series, Jaffer said the Indian captain would be taking the current series as one to prove to himself and his critics that he is also capable of scoring runs on English soil.

Warns against over-reliance on Kohli

“As one of the world’s best players he will want to tick the box of having performed well in Test match cricket in England and this series is a great opportunity for him to do this. I’m sure Virat will be looking forward to the series and he will be very keen to score heavily against England,” Jaffer, who played 31 Tests for India between 2000 and 2008, said in an exclusive interview with PakPassion.net.

The 29-year-old silenced his critics by hammering 149 off 225 balls on the second day of the first Test in Birmingham, taking India closer to England’s score of 287 despite facing a batting debacle. The Kohli show could also reflect on Jaffer’s warning that other Indian players will also have to up their game and not over-rely on their captain if they want to do good in the series.

“There shouldn’t be an over-reliance on Virat Kohli though and this is where the support from his team-mates is important. Everyone in the team has a role to play and I think it’s particularly important that the openers give India a good start.

If India is to win the series, then they need good starts from the opening batsmen and they need to look at totals of 400 to 450 consistently and once you do that then I think India has the bowling to put England under pressure,” Jaffer, who was a member of the Indian side that won a Test series in England last time in 2007, said.

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