India lost the first Test against England despite taking a 190-run first-innings lead. It’s rarely witnessed when it comes to the spin-friendly home conditions, which makes England’s win in Hyderabad one of their most famous triumphs in Test history. But former England captain Michael Vaughan feels India would not have succumbed had they been led by Virat Kohli instead of Rohit Sharma.
Virat withdrew himself from the first two Tests of the series due to personal reasons; and in his absence, the Rohit-led India lost the opening Test by 28 runs while chasing 231 to win, as debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley foxed the Indian batters with a dream seven-wicket spell on day four of the match after Ollie Pope’s knock 196 led the visitors’ fightback.
The win gave Ben Stokes’ team a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Speaking on YouTube channel ‘Club Prairie Fire’, Vaughan said that Rohit “just switched off” as a skipper, which wouldn’t have happened had Virat been the Indian captain in that situation.
“They missed Virat Kohli’s captaincy massively in Test cricket. Under Virat’s captaincy that week, India wouldn’t have lost the game. Rohit is a legend and a great player. But I felt he just switched off completely,” said Vaughan.
Writing on a similar note in his column for ‘The Telegraph’ last week, Vaughan labelled Rohit’s captaincy “average”, especially when his bowlers had no answer to Pope’s ‘sweep’ tactics.
“I thought Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was very, very average. I thought he was so reactive; I don’t think he maneuvered his field or was proactive with his bowling changes. And he didn’t have any answer to Ollie Pope’s sweeps or reverse sweeps,” Vaughan wrote.
The second Test begins on February 2 in Visakhapatnam, where besides Virat, India would also not have the services of KL Rahul and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who have been ruled out because of injuries.