With a humiliating 227-run defeat on Tuesday, Virat Kohli’s losing streak as captain extended to four matches. England played dominant cricket in the first Test and outclassed the Indian team in all three departments to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
Chasing a target of 420 runs, England bowled out India for just 192 runs to prove their authority at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
It’s the first time that Kohli has lost four Test matches in a row as a captain. Fans on Twitter demands resignation from Kohli as captain after a dreadful show of Team India under his leadership in the last few games.
Resign from captaincy @imVkohli 👎 pic.twitter.com/IDpOJOA0nB
— Thalapathy MSDian ❤ (@DhoniVijay07) February 9, 2021
Weird team selection n captaincy by kohli…
India needs specialist test captain… Virat is leading India like RCB.
He should be relieved of captaincy n should concentrate on his batting.— Dk_speaks (@SpeaksDk) February 9, 2021
India’s last 4 Tests under #ViratKohli 👎@samiprajguru
Lost v NZ, Wellington
Lost v NZ, Christchurch
Lost v Aus, Adelaide
Lost v Eng, Chennai #INDvsENG_2021 #ENGvIND #ChennaiTest #ENGvIND #Cricket #Kohli #kohliout #RohitSharma #Rohit #Hitman pic.twitter.com/EtVDnUObbw— Jacob Thomos (@Jacostio) February 9, 2021
All it takes is a ” Points Table ” for @imVkohli ‘s captaincy to go down the drain. Before the announcement of the WTC, his win record was well above 70%, and in the last 7-8 games, has come down to 30-35%. Not a winner of trophies, not a leader of men.
— Kumar Achintya (@courtroom_aao) February 9, 2021
Virat Kohli watching Rahane ‘s Performance
under his captaincy #ENGvIND #INDvsENG #IndiavsEngland #englandcricket #testcricket #Trending pic.twitter.com/qlrN16foxo
— Me&Memes (@Me_nd_Memes) February 9, 2021
However, with the bat, Kohli slammed 72 runs in the second innings to lead India’s fightback in the game. He didn’t get much support from the other India batters as the hosts suffered a middle-order collapse.
England also broke India’s 14-match unbeaten streak at home in Test cricket.
England have now jumped to the top of the ICC World Test Championships points table while India slipped to fourth. It will be an uphill task for the Indian team to seal their place in the final of WTC against New Zealand as they have to win two out of the next three games at any cost.
Apart from Kohli, Shubman Gill was the only other saving grace for Team India in the second innings with bat. The young opening batsman scored a sublime half-century before getting dismissed by James Anderson on a peach of a delivery.
Leach was the pick of the England bowlers in the second innings as he returned with figures of 4/72 in the 25 overs he bowled. He was ably supported by Anderson who scalped three wickets, conceding just 17 runs in his 11 overs. Dominic Bess, Ben Stokes, and Jofra Archer picked one wicket each.