India vs England: 3 Mistakes By Virat Kohli That Cost India The First T20I

Virat Kohli’s men succumbed to England in the first T20 of the five-match T20 series and will look to bounce back for the second T20 as we see the three mistakes that proved costly. England cruised to the victory with 8 wickets and finished off in style with a six showing the dominance they had in the first T20. India will need to address their issues soon if they have to make a comeback again.

Virat Kohli continued his rare streak of failures as the Indian skipper was dismissed for a duck and Eoin Morgan’s captaincy was brilliant again. England packed their bowling with a lot of quicks who hit the deck hard and reaped rewards for their outstanding efforts.

3 Mistakes By Virat Kohli That Cost India The First T20I:

1. Rohit Sharma’s Exclusion

The Indian vice-captain was rested for the first two T20s which put a big question on the management. The series against England is the last opportunity to settle the openers as India doesn’t play any T20 series till the T20 WorldCup apart from the IPL and hence Rohit should have been the first name on the sheet. Instead, Dhawan and Rahul opened and it did not fare out as India would have liked.

Rohit has been an integral part of the Indian limited-overs setup for a long time now and resting him now for the first T20s may not be the right move as India is scheduled to play three ODIs after the five-match T20 series for which they could have rested him. Rohit has four international T20 hundreds which are the most by any batsman and India should look to give a lot more games to the opening pair of Rohit and Rahul.

2.Changing Rishabh Pant’s Batting Order

Rishabh Pant was sent ahead of Shreyas Iyer in the batting order in the first T20 and it meant that Rishabh Pant had to stay away from his natural game with the new ball doing a lot. Pant did manage to score two fours and one six but he would have been a lot more effective if he had come after the likes of Iyer. He eventually scored 21 off 23 which is not the usual Pant we know.

Rishabh Pant has all the talent in the world and he must be given the license to demolish the bowling attack from ball one which he is really good at. The role of a number four and a number five could be different at times when there is the loss of wickets early and India needs to make sure they get the best out of Pant and find out what works for him like in the test matches.

3. Trying 4 Different Bowlers In The First 4 Overs

Despite the low score on the board, the most disappointing factor was the new ball which India did not use properly. The only way India could have won the game was to take early wickets but it wasn’t the case. Virat Kohli used four different bowlers at the start and did not allow them to settle in. Washington Sundar has been excellent with the new ball, but Chahal and Axar were preferred ahead of him at the start.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is coming back after a lot of time, and he seems to be toothless if he doesn’t swing or seam the ball in the powerplay. India needs to address their wicket-taking issue as they have gone in with a lot more defensive mindset rather than wicket-takers. Kohli needs to come up with perfect plans for the next T20 and make sure Indian bowlers look for wickets in the early overs rather than being defensive.