Skipper Virat Kohli rued the “lack of execution” of shots after India’s embarrassing 8-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the first T20I in Ahmedabad on Friday (March 12).
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Asked to bat first, the hosts posted a below-par 124/7 in 20 overs. Shreyas Iyer was the lone warrior with the bat, scoring 67 off 48 balls with 8 fours and a six. Besides him, none of the Indian batsmen managed to touch the 25-run mark.
In reply, England overhauled the target in just 15.3 overs, with openers Jason Roy (49 off 32 balls) and Jos Buttler (28 off 24 balls) playing decisive knocks.
“We just weren’t aware of what we had to do on that pitch, lack of execution on our shots and something we have to address,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Accept your faults, come back with more intent, clarity of areas you want to hit. Wicket didn’t allow you to hit the shots we wanted to.”
The captain also praised Shreyas Iyer for his half-century which helped India to post a respectable total.
“Shreyas showed how to use the crease and ride the bounce. Below par batting performance and England made us play. We looked to try a few things, but having said that you have to accept the conditions.
“If the pitch allows you to, you can be aggressive from ball one. We didn’t spend enough time assessing, Shreyas did but we had lost too many wickets to get to 150-160.”
Asked if switching from Test format to the shortest format was a reason for India’s struggle, Kohli replied: “That shouldn’t be a factor, take pride in playing good white-ball cricket, won our last few T20 series. These five games before the World Cup, we have to try and few things, but we can’t take anything lightly against England.”
Elated with his team’s clinical performance, England skipper Eoin Morgan said: “(It was a good game) Particularly in the bowling department, the wicket was better for us than we expected, we didn’t have to go to plan B and C very often, which is always a good sign.”
Jason Roy’s fluent knock ensured that England didn’t face any issue in chasing down the target and take a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series.
“Within the side there’s huge competition, outside the squad, too. Huge support for players who score runs and does well, and when Jason does it gees the boys up,” Morgan said in praise of Roy.
Just like his Indian counterpart, Morgan also stated that there was no Test hangover on players.
“It is completely different format, very distinct. In big series, like the Ashes, we’ve come out the back and learned from it,” he concluded.
(With PTI inputs)
