Team rankings do not matter in cricket, says Virender Sehwag ahead of the second Test

After a closely fought contest in the first Test, the Indian side will now travel to London where they face the hosts in the second Test of the series. Ahead of the Lord’s game, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels that the team should’ve won the Edgbaston Test. The Virat Kohli led side came close but succumbed to pressure at the crucial moments as Ben Stokes capsized their effort with a spell where a lot of things were happening.

Stokes picked up four wickets in the second innings, his spell pushed India onto the backfoot as the visitors lost the game by 31 runs. Sehwag believes that the batsmen should have contributed more. He is of the opinion that Kohli cannot win all the games on his own and needs support from the others. After their impressive performances, Ravi Ashwin, Ishant Sharma and Virat Kohli will be confident heading into the next match.

“India should have won the first Test. The batsmen spoiled all the good things done by the bowlers. Only three players will be confident ahead of Lord’s and they are Kohli, Ashwin and Ishant,” Viru said while speaking on India TV.

“They all performed well at Edgbaston and will be confident going into Lord’s. But India can’t win the match with just three players. All the 11 players need to contribute,” said Sehwag.

The 39-year-old also revealed his concern about the team selection. He wanted Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan to open with Cheteshwar Pujara to follow but the team management decided to bring in the in-form KL Rahul. Rahul’s two consecutive failures attracted a bit of criticism but he should be given more chances according to Sehwag.

Rahul or Pujara?

“If KL Rahul played the first Test then I think he should play the second match too. He should get enough chances. Because if you drop a player after just one match, it will definitely hurt his confidence. I think a player should get at least one full series and then if he fails to perform, you can drop that particular player from the team and give chance to others,” said Sehwag.

He also added that a player should be given an adequate amount of chances, “Five Test matches and 10 innings are enough for a player to perform and if somebody fails in it then he should be dropped.”

Team rankings do not matter in cricket. If you play well on a particular day, you will win. I felt sad to see India play poorly on those three days in Birmingham. The bowlers did a good job but the batting wasn’t good. If there would have been one batsman who could have supported Kohli in the first innings then India would have got a lead of 50-60 runs. The margin of our defeat was just 31 runs. As I have said earlier, it is always important to match the first innings score of the opposition,” he said.

The Indian team would hope to make a comeback in the second Test when they take the field at the Lord’s. The game is set to begin on Thursday (9th August).

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