‘Glittering CV now includes...’ - Former England captain mocks Virat Kohli after India’s loss in Bengaluru Test

Team India has lost the first Test match against New Zealand on Sunday in Bengaluru. The Kiwis took a 1-0 lead in the series after winning the game by 8 wickets just before lunch. Former England skipper Michael Atherton has used his opportunity to throw a huge jibe at Virat Kohli via his article in the Times newspaper. 

Michael Atherton wrote “India’s 46 all out in the first Test against New Zealand came only four years after their lowest-ever score, 36 all out against Australia in Adelaide. India’s batsmen plumbed the depths again before the previous embarrassment had slipped from memory. Virat Kohli’s glittering CV now includes being a part of two of India’s three lowest-ever scores”

India now has two more days to prepare for the second Test match in Pune starting on Friday. Washington Sundar who is currently playing for Tamil Nadu has been added to the squad for the second Test match. The 25-year-old scored a century while batting at number 3 against New Delhi during the Ranji Trophy 2nd round. 

Michael Atherton throws his weight behind Rohit Sharma 

One man who has been facing lots of criticism is Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. The 37-year-old’s decision to bat first after winning the toss saw India being bowled out for 46 in their 1st innings. Michael Atherton while writing in the times recounted how he was criticized as his England side were all out for 46 against West Indies in 1994. 

“Earlier this year marked the 30th anniversary of my team’s 46 all out in Port of Spain, Trinidad, highlighted with a lengthy recollection in these pages. Having parked the events for so long to the back of my mind, there was a grisly kind of pleasure in revisiting them again” opined Atherton

The former skipper turned commentator also added “The memories came flooding back readily. The dramatic bowling of Curtly Ambrose, knees and arms pumping on an increasingly uneven pitch; the intense atmosphere of the Queen’s Park Oval, in the days when Test cricket was well supported in the Caribbean; and the growing sense of panic and doom in the dingy, sweaty England dressing room that only hours before had been supremely confident of victory,"

Throwing his support behind Rohit Sharma, the former England star batter wrote “Why, by the way, is there greater opprobrium towards a captain who wins the toss, inserts the opposition, disastrously, over one who bats first and it all goes wrong? Rohit owned up, but it seems unlikely in years to come that he will be reminded of it in the way that Nasser Hussain was about Brisbane in 2002, when, having inserted Australia, his bowlers were flogged around the Gabba as Australia reached 364 for two at the end of the first day,”