(ANI): India captain Virat Kohli stated that hosts had more intent with the bat after England registered an innings and 76-run win at Headingly on Saturday and thereby leveled the five-match series 1-1 with two games to go.
The Indian innings folded up for 278 as Ollie Robinson (5/65) was on fire from the word go on Saturday. Craig Overton also pitched in with figures of 3/47 and James Anderson picked one to make it 400 wickets on home soil.
“It’s down to scoreboard pressure. We knew we were up against it when we were out for 80 and the opposition put up a big score. We put up crucial partnerships and saw the day through, but the pressure from the English bowlers was brilliant this morning and we didn’t respond well,” Virat Kohli told the host broadcasters at the end of the game.
“Batting collapses can happen in this country, the pitch was good to bat on, but their discipline with the ball forced us to make a few mistakes, and it was difficult to deal with spells where we weren’t getting runs. We didn’t make good decisions as a batting side. The pitch looked good to bat on, and when England batted it hadn’t changed much, so they had a lot more intent with the bat, made better decisions. They were the deserving side to win, to be honest,” he added.
Asked if he felt that the lower middle-order could have pitched in more, Kohli said: “You could say that we don’t have enough batting depth, but the top order has to give enough runs to the lower middle order to step up. The lower order can’t bail the team out all the time. We don’t have much other than the batting in the second innings to take from this game in terms of positives.”
Talking about playing another spinner, Virat said: “Playing another spinner would depend on the pitch and we’ll take a call later. It depends on the moisture and how it will hold up for five days. The pressure from the fourth seamer is important sometimes and sometimes we have to make sure taking only three seamers means that the spinners have to come in quickly. We need to correct our flaws quickly and we’ve done this before, and we look forward to the Oval Test.” (ANI)
