Virat Kohli wants better fielding effort from India

Gautam Gambhir has recorded his seventh duck in Tests – his second vs England. Indian skipper Virat Kohli showed good application as his unbeaten 49 guided India harbour to a draw.

He did not do much to set it right in the first test at Rajkot though, as his struggles continued against the English attack. Very clearly, the Indians have understood that not taking catches that come your way could very almost cost you the match.

“We did a lot of good things but could not quite get over the line”.

Since his comeback to Test Cricket this year, Gambhir has averaged 27.00 – his tally being 108 in four innings, including a fifty. At such a time, the bowlers tend to get on the back foot. That was certainly not the case in Rajkot.

But will making a rank turner in Vizag really help Team India? Although the visiting spinners, Adil Rashid and Mooen Ali turned the game around during the final hours of the day, the Indian skipper ensured he remained undefeated as India’s Test captain.

Another big positive – and an unexpected one – was that England’s spinners out-bowled India’s. “Everyone came to the party and took a massive step forward from the way they operated in Bangladesh. They should have won the game if they outperformed our spinners”.

India, considered to have the best batsmen in these conditions, lost eight wickets to spinners but could only produce two centuries in the first innings.

India’s spin force of Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra failed to get the desired success on a fast Rajkot track, sharing nine wickets in the two innings. There is difficulty for the bowlers to bowl on wickets that are suitable for batting and you are about to bowl to a side that has already scored more than 500.

“Just because they got more wickets than our spinners doesn’t mean we will be at a loss but that’s what I am saying that we batted 160 overs”.

What would have made the team management happy would be the performance of Hameed on debut with the batsman showing brilliant temperament while coach Trevor Bayliss also praised the performance of his team in the field, calling this the best performance of the team under his supervision. “When there is the pressure to win the match, you can play your shots, but when you are trying to save the match, you have to keep the intent going but can’t play as many shots”, said Kohli.

There has been pressure on the Indian bowling unit after they had to deal with a pitch not entirely to their liking in Rajkot.