In a surprising turn of events, the England cricket team made a stunning comeback to triumph over India in the first Test match at Hyderabad. The Indian cricket team, which was looking quite comfortable in first two days made one mistake after another, and eventually handed over the game to Ben Stokes-led England. Skipper Rohit Sharma faced a hard time pinpointing the exact reason for defeat and said that the team was maybe ‘not brave enough’.
“It’s hard to pinpoint where it went wrong. Having got a lead of 190, we thought we were very much in the game. (It was) exceptional batting (by Ollie Pope), one of the best that I have seen in Indian conditions by an overseas batter,” Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation.
It seemed like India has given away its most crucial strategic advantage and England batters, following the ‘bazball’ formula dominated the game from the third day. Debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley became England’s key in the second innings as he decimated India’s batters on their home turf.
The wonderful 196-run innings of Ollie Pope was enough to get close to India’s massive lead and despite an impressive performance from Indian bowlers, the batters disappointed again.
“I thought 230 was gettable, there wasn’t too much in the pitch. We didn’t bat well enough to get to the score. I went and checked where we bowled, we bowled in the right areas. When you finish the day, you analyze what went well and what didn’t go well,” the Indian skipper said.
“The bowlers executed the plans really well, but you’ve got to take your hat off and say well played to Pope. That was some serious knock,” Rohit added.
One of India’s worst defeats at home
The loss against England was not a usual low-phase defeat for Team India as the cricket team has dominated at home since 2013. The defeat against England was India’s fourth loss at home in Test cricket since 2013 and the second-ever defeat after getting a more than comfortable lead of 190 runs.
“We didn’t bat well enough to get to that score. I wanted them (Siraj and Bumrah) to take the game to the fifth day. (With) 20-30 runs, anything is possible. The lower order actually fought really well there and showed the top order that you need to fight it out. You need to show character, you need to be brave enough, which I thought we weren’t. We wanted to take some chances, we didn’t take chances with the bat. But that can happen. It’s the first game of the series, I hope the guys can learn from that,” Rohit said.
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Published: 29 Jan 2024, 02:52 PM IST