Former England skipper Michael Vaughan believes that India wouldn’t have lost the Hyderabad Test had Virat Kohli been the captain of the team. The hosts were in the driver’s seat with a healthy lead of 190 runs after the first innings but they couldn’t play with the same intensity as England batters put up a great show in the middle.
Ollie Pope made 196 runs, while Ben Foakes and Tom Hartley contributed well towards the end as England posted a massive total of 420 runs in the second innings. After this, debutant Tom Hartley stole the show with his seven-fer as the visitors won the match by 28 runs. Reflecting upon that, Vaughan stated that India misses Kohli’s captaincy in the red-ball format and added that they were turned off completely in the second innings.
“They miss Virat Kohli's captaincy massively in Test cricket. Under Virat's captaincy that week, India wouldn't have lost the game. Rohit is a legend and a great player. But I felt he just switched off completely” Vaughan said on the Club Prairie Fire show.
Meanwhile, this was the first time when India lost a Test match at home after taking a 100-plus run lead in the first innings. The bowlers lacked intensity as pointed out by many former cricketers including Vaughan and Anil Kumble and that is something that the Three Lions took advantage of. On the other hand, ahead of their second Test in Vizag, which is slated to begin on February 2, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out due to injuries.
Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar and Saurabh Kumar replaced them in the squad. Out of these players, Sarfaraz is one of the favourites to make his debut for the national team. He was sensational against the England Lions, which helped the youngster earn his spot in the Indian team. As things stand, either Rajat Patidar or Sarfaraz is expected to replace Rahul in the playing XI, while Kuldeep Yadav is expected to come in place of Jadeja.
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