KL Rahul included in squad for 2nd Test against England

Having come close to taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, England captain Alastair Cook expressed his disappointment with the the draw in the opening Test but defended his decision of declaring only after lunch on day five. The team can’t really afford to drop catches when playing against a side like England. Be it pulling him out of a first-class game in between.

When asked about the role of the toss, Kohli, who lost his first toss in Rajkot in Tests after seven wins, said winning the toss gives you a slight advantage but in Test cricket, it doesn’t matter much.

‘If you take your chances, you have a team five down for 100 compared to three down for 250 – it’s a different ball game altogether.

Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli played a sensible knock to draw the first Test against England at Rajkot.

Kumble also made special mention of India’s fast bowlers who were able to find reverse-swing when it looked like none of England’s could. We played good cricket and were relentless with the ball. We know what we’ve got [coming up in terms of a hectic schedule] but the way the 11 guys played in the last game was outstanding.

Having spent some frustrating time away from worldwide action, tending to his injured right hamstring, the right-hander joined the Indian Test team here on Tuesday.

“I thought the fast bowlers bowled really well”.

The visitors on the other hand came up with an elite performance in the first test. They got it to reverse as well and they troubled all the English batsmen.

“We wanted to set them a score that they couldn’t get so the only two chances of a result were us to win or them to draw and that can do amusing things on a fifth-day wicket”.

We’ve got people on the staff doing all sorts, tapping into their laptops and adding value where they can. “Just now we are going in with a few heads with what we are going to do”, said Cook. The Indian captain expects to make some surprise inclusions for the second Test at Visakhapatnam starting on Thursday.

“If we continue on that level as we did in Rajkot there’s no reason why we can’t put pressure on their batting with our spinners”.

The leg-spinner managed to get just three wickets in the match and went for 158 runs, averaging over four an over in both the innings, which is a bit high by Test standards. We are looking at going into the game with the best possible eleven and Rahul is one of our key players.