Virat Kohli
India suffered two batting collapses in a space of three days at Headingley - 78 all-out on the opening day and from 237/3 to 278 all-out in the second innings - as the visitors lost by an innings and 76 runs to lose the third Test. Yet Indian skipper Virat Kohli defended his decision to bat first in Leeds.
"Pitch looked good to bat on, when England batted it was a different ball game because we weren't as good with the ball. The result is a reflection of how the teams played in this game, we expected them to bounce back," said Kohli in the post-match presentation.
Talking about India's batting collapse, Kohli hailed the English attack for forcing them to commit errors.
"Quite bizarre, it can happen in this country, batting collapses. We thought the pitch was good to bat on, coming on nicely. But the discipline forced mistakes and the pressure was relentless. Difficult to cope when you're not scoring runs. That caused the batting order to crumble," he said.
Despite the emphatic loss, Kohli is confident that India can script a comeback with two more Tests to go.
" We did pretty well in the first two games, when you have a result like this you can't take too much from it. As a batting group we need to stay close and confident, even after 36 all out [in Australia] we came back," he said.
