India vs England | If we play at 85% of our potential then the series will be competitive, says Virat Kohli

08/05/2018

Virat Kohli reckons that although the team’s batting performance was below par in the first Test, there were still some positives to take from the loss and the visitors need to play to their full potential. R Ashwin backed Kohli as he said there were a lot of things to be proud of despite the loss.

The Indian cricket team were left shocked after they were beaten by a determined English side on day four of the Edgbaston Test yesterday. They began the day at 110/5 with skipper Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik at the crease and 84 runs away from a victory, the odds were in their favour. But things took a turn for the worse after Ben Stokes picked up the wicket of Kohli which led to a dramatic loss of wickets for the Indians. One by one, the batsmen fell as they were bowled out in the end for a total 162, with Stokes claiming the final wicket of Hardik Pandya.

However, despite a disappointing outing for the Indian batsmen, there were some good signs as far as the bowling department was concerned. Kohli looked gutted during the post-match interview but was optimistic that his team could do well if they played even at 80-85% of their overall potential.

"The series is set up nicely now. The fact we didn't play to our potential at all and were still close in the game says everything about us as a side. If we pull ourselves together and even play 80-85% of the cricket we can, then it's going to be a very exciting and competitive series," Kohli said.

Ravichandran Ashwin enjoyed a decent return to the Test team and looked to be in fine form as he picked up four wickets in the first innings. Ashwin remained a constant threat throughout the game and picked another three wickets in the second innings. The spinner echoed Kohli’s view as he said that despite the narrow loss, there were a lot of things the visitors need to feel proud of.

"I think this is a game where we would have liked to finish on the winning side. No doubt about it but there are a lot of things we can feel proud of at the end of this game, it's a long Test series so to feel defeated or pained so early on in the series is unfair and at the moment it is all about the feelings that I am bringing out, and I don't feel that bad about it as of now because I thought we competed really well and made two comebacks and probably didn't close out the game when the initiative was on our side. That's something that can happen when you are traveling so we are upbeat about it.

"Like Virat keeps mentioning, when you make runs and pick up wickets, you want to make sure that it is a killer blow and you want to end up on the winning side. It gives you more pleasure out of the game and when it doesn't happen you feel a little deflated about it. But as I told you before, this game was like a see-saw battle and there was enough in there for the quicks and it was doing quite a bit. So they were always in the game and you do expect batsmen to get a ball that has their name on it. So with that sort of a game hedging on the balance, I thought we competed really well through the game. There are a lot of things to be upbeat about so not completely feeling deflated and in this space I feel like we did well and there is something we can learn going ahead in this series," Ashwin said.

India vs England | If we play at 85% of our potential then the series will be competitive, says Virat Kohli

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