India desperate for turn in fortunes in second test match against England

The second Test match between India and England will start on Thursday, 17 November, 9:30 AM at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.

England were denied a victory as India held out on the final evening of the first Test on 172 for six but Cook hailed the “bloody hard work” his side had put in and congratulated them on an admirably sustained and skilful effort.

Cook, who has been captain for four years, also brushed off worries Bayliss could be tempted by any offer to coach his home country after Australia’s innings defeat by South Africa in Hobart that represented their fifth successive Test loss.

The Indian team has included KL Rahul in the squad, who scored a classy 76 in the most recent Ranji match for Karnataka, leaving Gautam Gambhir’s place in jeopardy.

“Catch the ball. That’s all I can say to sum it up”.

“If you look at the only aspect where we probably let ourselves down, it was in the catching”. Yet Cook believes England’s performance in the First Test has sent out a warning to India that they are in for a tough series. “Now, we are talking of having a chance in this series”, added Cook.

In 23 Ranji Trophy matches played at Rajkot, teams batting first have posted in excess of 550 on eight occasions – that’s in more than one third of the matches. Yes, when you look at the last day, those 50 overs, I don’t like to read too much into that batting that happened in those 70 overs. “But you can expect some surprise selections as well”, he added.

“If you look at the first innings, both teams batted almost 160 overs”. Winning the toss does give you an advantage initially but that doesn’t mean you are on the back-foot.

Since his comeback to Test Cricket this year, Gambhir has averaged 27.00 – his tally being 108 in four innings, including a fifty.

Kohli also talked about the Vizag pitch, hoping that it wouldn’t turn out like the Rajkot one.

“We had it pretty clear in our minds that Rahul is our No 1 choice along with Vijay”.

“In a way the team situation freed me up a bit when we were pushing on and it came back a bit better, but it is nice to score runs when maybe you’re not quite at your best”. That was the whole idea behind it.

He further went on to state that the team needed to realise that all the skills and talent won’t make any difference unless they grab the opportunities that come their way. “Pulling Rahul out of a first-class game within the rules and we didn’t had to think differently”, he said.