Shoaib Akhter Hopeful For India's Comeback Against England

Updated - 05 Aug 2018, 11:34 AM

Virat Kohli, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar

Virat Kohli's brilliance in Edgbaston Test grabbed the eye-balls. Credits: Getty

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The Pakistani speedster, Shoaib Akhter feels that India too much depends on Virat Kohli. India suffered a massive loss against England in the first Test match in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Sam Curran took five wickets and scored 87 runs in the Test against India at Edgbaston. Image Courtesy: Getty Images

Despite scoring collectively 200 runs and 48% of runs, the Indian skipper, unfortunately, could not help his team to cross the total. The Indian skipper scored his maiden ton on England soil as he went out on, the score of 149 runs in the first inning.

When India was chasing a total of 194, Virat Kohli stood out again with a combative 51 but lacked support at the other end.

England Vs India 2018, 1st Test, Ben Stokes, Edgbaston — Ben Stokes trapped Virat Kohli in front of the wicket. Getty Images

After the loss, Virat Kohli said that it is the lack of application apart from the poor shot selection that led to such dismal results. He urged his teammates to play fearless cricket in next game to make a comeback.

Virat Kohli on his team performance

While speaking on the post-match interaction, the skipper of India said,

“I think it was a great game. Glad to be part of such an exciting Test. A lot of times we came back, showed character there. But England was relentless. They made us work hard for the runs. It sets up the series nicely and gives us what we need to do going forward,”

It is worth noting that apart from the Indian skipper, no other batsman could cross the barrier of thirty runs mark.

In the second inning, Hardik Pandya played a knock of 31 whereas the other top scorer was Dinesh Karthik who scored 20. Soon, the English all-rounder Ben Stokes trapped Virat Kohli Infront of the middle, the dream of a comprehensive victory shattered in a jerk.

Shoaib Akhter hopeful for a comeback

In the meanwhile, Pakistani bowling legend, Shoaib Akhter came to defend Virat Kohli on Twitter. He feels displeasure on the results despite hard knocks from Indian skipper.

Here is the link to the tweet:

Indian batting just can’t depend on Virat every now & then Indian batting got to perform better then this ..
I hope Hindustan make a strong come back in series ..

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) August 4, 2018