Following a crushing defeat by England in the second Test at Lord’s, team India captain Virat Kohli has said that the hosts deserved to win while his side deserved to lose. Conceding that the visitors were completely outplayed by England, Kohli said that he is “not very proud” of the way team India played.
“I am not very proud of the way we played to be honest. It is first time in the last five Test matches we’ve been outplayed. But credit to England, they were clinical. When a team plays like that they deserve to be on the winning side. And we deserved to lose,” said the cricketer in the post-match presentation.
Kohli further conceded that the team combination was a “bit off”, when asked if an extra seamer would have helped in the wicket condition at Lord’s. He added that the team cannot blame the conditions for the loss. Lauding the bowling attack of the hosts, Kohli said that England bowlers were relentless with the ball.
When asked about the possibility of conditions being a reason for the loss, the skipper said that “we can’t really think about these things”, adding that the team needs to counter the conditions “as and when they come”.
“Sometimes the rub of the green will go your way too. We will not sit around and say that we didn’t have the best of conditions. Their bowlers were relentless with the ball. Looking at things now, the weather was so unpredictable,” he added.
On his own performance – scoring just 17 off 29 balls – Kohli said that he did play with a “lower back pain”, but added that he was confident of regaining full fitness before the third Test at Nottingham on August 18.
“It is a lower back issue, coming up again and again, purely because of the workload and the number of matches I have been playing,” Kohli said when asked if he batted with an injury which affected his movement on the crease. “It’s five days to go. I am confident I will be fine in five days time with a bit of rehabilitation. I should be okay,” he said.
After Thursday’s opening day was washed out, England took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series against the world`s top-ranked side.
India, dismissed for 107 in their first innings, had needed 289 runs to make England bat again after the home side declared their first innings closed at 396 for seven with Chris Woakes unbeaten on 137. But as the match progressed India could not stand strong and England registered innings and 159 runs victory on the fourth day of the second Test.
(With PTI Inputs)
Source: Zee News