Kohli Wants Top Order to Look at Themselves in the Mirror

After fighting for four continuous days, India finally lost to England in a nail-biting first Test at Birmingham in a five-match Test series by 31 runs.

Cricket news: Learn from your mistakes and play fearless cricket, says Kohli

The Indian captain was only the standout batsman from his team as he scored 149 in first innings and 51 in the second.

However the 29-year-old’s effort went in vain as England won their 1000th Test while India lost their sixth Test match at the same venue.

While the bowlers did their job superbly, especially Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma, the batsmen failed as the second highest score of the team was that of Hardik Pandya’s 31 in the second innings.

Kohli sounded critical about the top order batsmen, comprising of Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul, which faltered in both the innings of the game.

Along with the captain the lower order also batted well, especially in the first innings when India were down by eight wickets and behind by almost 100 runs, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma helped their captain from the other end.

Along with praising the lower order for their batting abilities, Kohli also put forth the notion of playing fearless cricket and to learn from the previous mistakes.

“Application. There’s a lot to learn from the lower order as well. First innings, Ishant and Umesh got stuck in there, again Ishant showed character here, Umesh got stuck in with Hardik, so those kinds of things make you feel that as top-order batsmen, we need to apply ourselves better also,” Kohli was quoted as saying in the post-match presentation ceremony.

“Just look at ourselves in the mirror. There’s no hiding from this game. Whenever you step onto the field, whatever you feel will come out in no time. We just have to be positive, fearless, enjoy our cricket, take the negatives out of our cricket and look at the positives and build on those,” the Delhi-born cricketer added.