Former England player David Gower has lambasted Virat Kohli’s defensive tactics as the captain. Kohli had a spread field while bowling at the England tail. Thus, England was able to put 332 runs in their first innings despite been 198-7 at the end of the opening day. In fact, India had got England’s first seven wickets in a traditional way. However, Kohli changed his tactics as he focussed to hope for a wicket rather than go for the wicket.
In fact, Kohli had a spread field for England fast bowler, Stuart Broad who didn’t have a great time with the bat in the series thus far. Consequently, the runs came thick and fast for the hosts as they scored runs over four runs per over in the first session.
Fast bowlers have also lacked the finishing touches.
“There were too many spaces and gaps rather than bowling properly at a tailender as you would a top-order batsman, they allowed them a little bit of freedom,” David Gower said while speaking on Sky Sports before the match.
Subsequently, David Gower believes Kohli let his foot off the pedal as his bizarre field placement helped the England batsmen settle into his groove.
“That allowed England to settle and we have seen it countless times over the years, as soon as you get a partnership developing like that down the order it seems to change the psychology”.
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Gower believes that the Indian captain needs to rethink over his strategy if he gets in the similar position. England may have struggled to get to 250, however, they ended up with 332 runs on the board.
“Kohli needs to re-think how he does that if he gets in a similar situation in the future against another team. It has been a crucial passage of the day because I thought at the start of day that England would struggle to make 250 and when they get way past 330 it makes a huge difference.”
Indian fast bowlers have also lacked the knockout punch as this is not the first time England tail has wagged. England lower order has averaged 29 in the ongoing series, which has created the massive difference.