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Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes India would not have lost the first Test match against England in Hyderabad last week under Virat Kohli’s captaincy. The Rohit Sharma-led hosts, in the absence of the former India captain, suffered a forgettable 28-run defeat at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, their first defeat at that venue, as England took a 1-0 lead in the match. Five game series.
Scores of 80 from Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja saw India take a 190-run lead in the first innings, but Ollie Pope’s magnificent 196 helped England overcome the deficit and set a target of 231. The hosts They had a promising start. Start before debutant Tom Hartley took a seven-wicket haul as India folded for 202 runs.
This was the first time in India’s 91-year Test history that they lost a match after taking a lead of more than 100 runs in the first innings. It was also India’s third consecutive winless Test match at home, having lost against Australia in Indore last year before drawing in Ahmedabad.
In a discussion about the opening Test match on the ‘Club Prairie Fire’ YouTube channel, Vaughan was asked if the result in Hyderabad reflected the beginning of a decline for Indian Test cricket at home or if the hosts missed Kohli and Mohammed Shami. The former England cricketer did not choose any of the options and instead felt that India would not have lost the first Test if Kohli had been the captain. Acknowledging the greatness of current captain Rohit, Vaughan felt that he “just fizzled out”.
“They missed Virat Kohli’s captaincy in Test cricket. Under Virat’s captaincy that week, India would not have lost the game. Rohit is a legend and a great player. But I felt he just completely switched off,” he said. .
Vaughan also slammed Rohit in his column for The Telegraph last week, saying he was not proactive while leading the team in Hyderabad and rather seemed “clueless” as Pope executed his sweeps and reverse sweeps en route to his record-breaking knock. .
“I thought Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was very, very normal. I thought he was so reactive that I don’t think he maneuvered in his field or was proactive with his bowling changes. And he had no answer to Ollie Pope’s sweeps or reverse sweeps,” Vaughan wrote.
India will hope to bring about a turnaround in the second Test against England starting on February 2 in Visakhapatnam.