England Vs India, 2018, 4th Test: Twitter Erupts as Virat Kohli Finally Announces Unchanged XI

After a lot of debates, finally, the fourth Test at Southampton between England and India gets underway. Right with the toss, the game has already started to trend on micro-blogging website Twitter. With Virat Kohli announcing the unchanged XI, fans showed their funnier side to the Twitter world.

Kohli played for 38 games to stay with the same XI in the consecutive Test matches. Interestingly, it is the first time under Kohli’s captaincy in the Tests to play with the same players in the two games on a trot.

England won the toss and elected to bat first:

Earlier in the day, England won the toss and asked the visitors to roll their arms first. After a prolonged gap, Kohli-led India announced the same playing XI that played at Trent Bridge.

Despite the fact that Ravichandran Ashwin was having fitness issues, he successfully managed to pass it with flying colours on match day.

Meanwhile, England left out Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes. The all-rounder suffered a thigh strain while the Man of the Match in the first game, Sam Curran replaced him.

Meanwhile, Pope has been replaced by Moeen Ali, who scored the double century in the last domestic game for Worcestershire.

Speaking on the unchanged XI, Virat Kohli stated: ”I thought he was going to say the four-letter word starting with ‘b’ again. Would have batted first as well. Good grass covering, nice and even, probably the best pitch of the series. The good thing about it is that it’s hard so you can get something out of it with the new ball. We have an unchanged XI. First time in a long time. Rightly so as well. Don’t think we need to change looking at the conditions. We have all bases covered.”

As per the stats, Kohli is first India to take the gap of 38 Tests to go with the same XI in the consecutive games.

All over, Team India skipper Virat Kohli is in second place while Graeme Smith holds the top position who kept on changing the team for 44 games.

However, it would be interesting to see how Indians would come up against Englishmen on a batting wicket. The lively grass on the middle could probably help the fast bowlers for the first hour of play.

Here are the few funny tweets:

And finally Its Unchanged XI of Previous Match Since 2014. History Made ????. Virat Made Some Strong Decision ? and Another Usual Thing Is He Lost A Toss Once Again.#IndvEng #EngvInd

— Mathan (@ImMathan17) August 30, 2018

https://twitter.com/shikhar_dhawan_/status/1035098882739384322

https://twitter.com/BrutalBatsman/status/1035099081461256192

After 37 test matches into his captaincy, Kohli for the first time, is playing an unchanged team, finally! #ENGvIND

— Shantanu Smart (@smartshantanu) August 30, 2018

https://twitter.com/HimanJadduboy/status/1035109825099616257

*Commentators, Media, Broadcasters, Statisticians telling Virat that he's playing an unchanged 11 for the first time*
Virat Kohli – #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/Pga3XMzqFF

— vibhav sethi (@vibhavsethi2) August 30, 2018

History for Kohli! After 38 Tests he has decided to name an unchanged side, first time in his time as India's Test skipper #ENGvIND

— Ujwal (@UjwalKS) August 30, 2018

Unchanged Indian XI shock

— Rick Eyre on cricket (@rickeyrecricket) August 30, 2018

https://twitter.com/anandkatakam/status/1035100101440491520

@englandcricket opt to bat vs @BCCI, who “surprisingly” has an unchanged playing XI… #ENGvIND

— Tridib Baparnash ॐ (@TridibIANS) August 30, 2018

India are unchanged. After 4 years I think ?

The new batting line up might just be a masterclass or a terrible disaster. No inbetweens. Excited to find out.

— Jagmeet ਜਗਮੀਤ (@jagmeet_93) August 30, 2018

For a change, an unchanged playing xi from Virat Kohli! #ENGvIND

— CricNil ?? (@CricWizard) August 30, 2018

Finally! Yes, I heard it right. And I have lived to see that day. For the first time under Kohli, India are fielding an unchanged XI#INDvENG

— Suvajit Mustafi (@RibsGully) August 30, 2018

Finally! Yes, I heard it right. And I have lived to see that day. For the first time under Kohli, India are fielding an unchanged XI#INDvENG

— Suvajit Mustafi (@RibsGully) August 30, 2018