ENG vs IND 2018: Virat Kohli Falls Short Of Breaking Graeme Smith's Record
Virat Kohli, on Thursday, named an unchanged playing XI for the fourth England vs India Test. It was the first time, Kohli named the same playing eleven since taking over as captain. As a result, he missed out on breaking the record set by Graeme Smith for playing most number of consecutive matches with different eleven.
India hadn’t played the same XI in two successive matches for 45 Tests, seven of them coming under MS Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy. And Kohli needed to play seven more games with different playing elevens to break Smith’s record.
The former South Africa captain had played with different playing elevens in 44 consecutive games.
Third in this list is Sourav Ganguly. The former India skipper had captained India in 28 Tests before naming an unchanged XI. Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq is fourth on the list with 26 matches.
Kohli decided to trust the same playing eleven after the thumping 203-run win over England in the third Test. It was one of the most dominating performances from India in recent times. Virat Kohli & Co. dominated the hosts in all departments to claw their way back in the series.
After scoring 329 in the first innings, they bowled out England for just 161. In the second innings, the visitors scored 352 for 7 (declared) to set England a target of 521. In reply, England could only manage 317. Every player had played his role to perfection to fire India to one of their best overseas victories.
There were apprehensions over Ravichandran Ashwin’s participation in the fourth Test due to a groin injury. However, the off-spinner recovered in time to make it to the playing eleven.
