If Virat Kohli is not the best batsman, he's very close to it: Trevor Bayliss
"The way he played the first and second innings was high-class stuff," Bayliss said.
England vs India first Test as far as the batting part is concerned was Virat Kohli vs England. The Indian skipper single-handedly scored 200 runs in the game while the rest of the team could only contribute 214 in both the innings. He put up a valiant effort in the first innings with his 149-run knock to almost wipe off the deficit and was still resilient in the second knock but couldn’t take his team over the line. England head coach Trevor Bayliss thinks that the failure of the other batsmen will add to the pressure on Kohli.
Bayliss said that after the kind of knock he played in both the innings of the first Test at Edgbaston, Kohli is certainly very close to being the best in the world if he’s already not there. He knows how much of the Indian batting depends on the skipper and if they can get some of the others out for cheap it will put more weight on Kohli to perform even better.
“If Virat Kohli is not the best batsman (in the world), he’s very close to it. The way he played the first and second innings was high-class stuff. If we can put pressure on the other batsmen in the Indian team, that’s going to add to the pressure on him,” Bayliss told reporters ahead of the 2nd Test at Lord’s.
England and India have a similar batting
He asserted that their situation is pretty similar with a few established names in the likes of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow while most others are still trying to get their feet into the ground and become regular members of the squad.
“I don’t think it’s any different for us. We’ve got a few guys who are not necessarily cemented in the team and that put extra pressure on people like Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow,” said Bayliss.
The ball was swinging right through the four days in Birmingham and batting was really difficult as wickets fell in all the sessions of the four days. It was really difficult for the batsmen to get in and had to apply themselves to get the runs.
“In this first Test, the four innings had wickets falling left, right and center, all batsmen were in trouble, even Kohli, who I don’t think was all that comfortable early on. It was difficult to bat, probably more difficult than it looked from outside,” the England head coach added.
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