Rohit Sharma’s captaincy has come under severe criticism after India’s 28-run defeat in the opening Test against England in Hyderabad.

Despite conceding a huge first-innings lead of 190 runs, the visitors bounced back to post 420 in their second essay, courtesy of Ollie Pope’s incredible century (196).

Chasing 231 to win, the home team capitulated to be bowled out for 202 in 69.2 overs and went 1-0 down in the five-match series.

As India lost the first Test match at home after taking a lead over 100 runs, former England skipper Michael Vaughan came down heavily on Rohit's captaincy, saying that the hosts probably would not have lost the match had Virat Kohli been leading the side.

Notably, Kohli pulled out of the first two Tests due to personal reasons days before the start of the series.

“They missed Virat Kohli’s captaincy massively in Test cricket. Under Virat’s captaincy this week, India wouldn’t have lost the game. Rohit is a legend and a great player. But I felt he just switched off completely,” Vaughan said while speaking on the ‘Club Prairie Fire’ podcast.

Earlier, Vaughan called Rohit’s captaincy ‘very, very average’ and added that the latter was clueless when Ollie Pope was playing sweeps and reverse sweeps at will.

“I thought Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was very, very average. I thought he was so reactive, I don’t think he manoeuvred his field or was proactive with his bowling changes. And he didn’t have any answer to Ollie Pope’s sweeps or reverse sweeps,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

The Indian cricket team will be desperately looking for a victory in the second Test, slated to get underway on February 2 in Visakhapatnam.

Besides Kohli, the hosts will be missing the services of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul in the second Test due to injuries.

Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar and Washington Sundar have been drafted into the Indian Test squad as replacements for Jadeja and Rahul.