England showed less intent which assured us of victory: Kohli

TIL Desk Sports/ Indian Test cricket skipper Virat Kohli today said that England team’s lack of intent gave him enough “assurance” that they would crumble anytime during their herculean chase of 405. Opener Alastair Cook and teenager Haseeb Hameed blocked almost everything adding 75 runs in 50.2 overs but once they were dismissed, it became a walk in the park for the home team as the clinched the Test with a 246-run win.

“Not giving away at more than 1.5 per over, we thought they would come out with more intent to be honest. And to see the approach that they had obviously gave us assurance that once we get a couple of wickets, it will crumble pretty quickly because there wasn’t much intent from the batsmen,” Kohli made no bones about what he felt about visitor’s approach.

“It is a pretty basic thing to do, to be honest, and if you don’t have intent in the fourth innings, it is tough to play out four and a half sessions.” While most of the other batsmen were busy defending, Kohli aggregated 248 runs from two innings with scores of 167 and 81. Asked about his batting, Kohli said:”It is only if you have intent that you will be able to play the ball accordingly because you are looking to play it with the bat. If you don’t have intent, and you are looking to control the ball, and if it does something, then you are in no position to control it, the edges fly off.”