Virat Kohli’s knock amongst the greatest Test match innings, believes Michael Vaughan

After bowling England out for a total of 287, India started off well on Day 2 with both the openers, Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay, helping the team reach the 50-run mark in the 14th over. However, Sam Curran had other plans in his mind as he dismissed Vijay and Rahul within a span of three deliveries, much to the pleasure of the English fans. Soon Dhawan departed leaving India in a spot of bother at 59-3. Virat Kohli along with Ajinkya Rahane showed some fight and built a 41-run partnership after which the vice-captain had to depart. In came Dinesh Karthik who had to walk back to the pavilion after scoring a duck. Later on, even Hardik Pandya could not manage to hold on to his wicket and left the field with India at 148-6.

Vaughan felt that England were loose on the field and let Kohli score 149 which was 15 more than what he got throughout the series the last time India toured England.

The former English cricketer also felt that England could not be blamed much as the batting maestro was toying around with their bowlers. He rated this knock as one of the best Test innings because of the situation in which India were after losing 6 wickets. After Kohli’s 149, the second highest score by an Indian was 26.

“England can’t be blamed much. You can make a lot of suggestions as to what could have been done. One should just give Kohli the respect he deserves and admire his batting. His knock is right up there with one of the best Test match innings considering the context of the game. He scored 149 and the second highest individual score was 26. So that tells you everything,” he said.

“It’s a five-match series and Virat has got off to a great start. Such players are very difficult to stop once they get going. Great players love the big stage and when he went out there the crowd booed him. He took it as a challenge and made the hosts pay,” Vaughan concluded.