IND vs ENG: "The Bad Time Is Not Ending" - Aakash Chopra On Virat Kohli Failing Again In 2nd India Vs England ODI

Virat Kohli raised expectations by playing a few impressive strokes in the second One-Day International against England, but Aakash Chopra has noted that Kohli once again failed to produce a significant knock. 

Before nicking behind the wicket, Kohli had scored 16 runs from 25 deliveries. Team India lost by a wide margin of 100 runs after being bowled out for just 146 while attempting to reach a 247-run mark. 

Virat Kohli Raised Our Expectations Again: Aakash Chopra

India’s pursuit was discussed by Aakash Chopra in a video posted on his YouTube channel. Regarding Kohli’s dismissal, he said: 

“The big news is that Virat Kohli played, hit three amazing drives as well – a cover drive, a straight drive and an on the drive. That was fantastic, but after that got out to an away-going delivery. The bad time is not ending, unfortunately.” 

The former Indian hitter emphasised that Kohli once more tried to fool people by seeming nice. 

“Virat Kohli raised our expectations again. The way he played those three shots, it seemed the guy will come back in form; it is not far; the legs are moving but then again a distant delivery, going away with the slope, got the edge. This is a huge problem.” 

Aakash Chopra Draws Attention To Rohit Sharma’s Weakness

Three crunching boundaries from Kohli gave optimism for a turnaround in his fortunes. He jabbed at a delivery from David Willey that was travelling away and was caught by Jos Buttler behind the wicket, so it turned out to be a false dawn. 

Aakash Chopra drew attention to the fact that skipper Rohit Sharma succumbed to his habitual weakness. He clarified: 

“Left-arm swing bowler, pitched-up delivery, hitting on the pads, this happens with Rohit Sharma, but this can happen with anyone. All of us commit an error; some are troubled by incoming deliveries and some by away-going ones, like Rohit is troubled by incoming ones and Virat by the ones going away.” 

Mohammed Shami Did Raise Some Expectations: Aakash Chopra

The acclaimed pundit said that Mohammad Shami added some spice to the game by landing a few lusty strikes but claimed that after India lost all of their frontline batsmen, the game was already out of their hands.

Chopra said: “Suryakumar Yadav was playing well, to be fair, got an inside edge, and he got out. Rishabh Pant came and went. Hardik was batting alright but then he played a shot and got out.

Livingstone came and dismissed Jaddu with his very first ball, and that was done and dusted, although Shami did raise some excitement. But it was never going to be enough.” 

On Thursday, not a single Indian hitter even crossed the 30-run threshold. Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya put together the biggest partnership of the Indian innings, scoring 42 runs off the fifth wicket. After losing the first game of the ODI series, England was able to tie the score by scoring 247 runs, but it was never going to be enough to win the series. 

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