Is Kohli the victim of excessive self-belief by trusting his own rhetoric?

One week ago, James Anderson’s delivery crashed into Mohammed Shami’s stumps and India had lost the last test match and, with it, the series against England. As was to be expected, analyses followed in an attempt to make sense of our loss. Mike Brearley, who is now justly acknowledged as a leading thinker on the game, wondered whether Virat Kohli had become too dominant a figure in Indian cricket. The corollary was clear – was this affecting India’s ability to function as a team? An excessively strong personality as a captain could suppress a counter view in the team.

This refusal to entertain any other point of view came across in the reactions of the captain and the coach, Ravi Shastri, of the Indian cricket team. Both of them insisted it was not as devastating a defeat as the final scores would suggest. One cannot help but think that it is that very attitude that was the root cause of our defeat. It really looked as if captain and coach were in denial. It is interesting to see how we arrived at this stage.

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Ind vs Eng 2nd Test Day 1: Toss delayed due to light drizzle at Lord's

As they step into London’s Lord’s Cricket Ground for the 2nd Test of their 5-match series against England, the Virat Kohli-led Indian cricket team would expect its struggling batsmen to take more responsibility and help beat the hosts to level the series. In the first Test, played at Birmingham’s Edgbaston ground, India had come close to taking a lead but fallen short by 31 runs. If captain Kohli had received more support from his batting partners, the result there might have been different. The toss has been delayed due to light rain.

Covers still on here at Lord’s, with the start of play delayed #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/5cbxLsJ9XO

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 9, 2018

The Pujara and number 3 conundrum

Indian team management would be in a dilemma over the batting line-up. At Edgbaston, Captain Kohli chose to play Shikhar Dhawan ahead of Cheteshwar Pujara, and fitted in K L Rahul in the playing 11. Experimentation with the number three spot is nothing new for India’s team management. The Kohli-Ravi Shastri combine first played around with number three in 2014-15, when Rohit Sharma was picked ahead of Pujara for the fourth Test against Australia at Sydney.

Ind vs Eng 1st ODI: Upbeat India look to give stiff challenge to England

Pressive T20 International (T20I) series win, India will eye another dominant performance against England when both teams lock horns for the 1st One Day International (ODI) match at Trent Bridge in Nottingham today. With ICC Cricket World Cup scheduled to be held in UK in 2019, the three-match ODI series will give Virat Kohli and Company an ideal opportunity to know the English conditions that Indian cricket team are expected to encounter at during their World Cup stint at exactly same time next year.

India will be going to play the 1st ODI on high after 2-1 T20I series win while England, the top-ranked ODI team in ICC men’s ODI Team rankings, coming into the series having crushed a below-par Australia 6-0 in their last bilateral engagement recently. England have been one of the finest 50 over sides in recent times and India will have their task cut against a batting line-up comprising Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Jonny Bairstow and Eoin Morgan with Ben Stokes as all-rounder makes the English side a formidable team.

It is a reputation built on fearless, attacking cricket that has seen England win 46 out of 69 ODIs since a disastrous ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Their last bilateral series' defeat came in India in January 2017, with only a freak one-off loss to Scotland in the interim.

India vs England: Virat Kohli & co look to wrap up series with 2nd T20I win

Fresh from a clinical eight-wicket victory over England, India will aim to clinch the Twenty-20 International (T20I) series when they lock horns with the hosts in the second T20I of the three-match series at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff today. The Indian cricket team led by Virat Kohli completely outclassed England in the first game, as Kuldeep Yadav's fifer followed by Lokesh Rahul's unbeaten ton guided Indian to a comfortable victory. Indian skipper Virat Kohli will be expecting another dominant show from his side to set the tone for the long England tour.

The Indian team management is likely to stick to the same playing eleven, and will not try to disturb their winning combination. In the batting department. Opener Shikhar Dhawan, who failed in the first match, would like to rectify his mistakes in the second T20I against England, while in bowling department, pacers would like to display some disciplined bowling after leaking runs in the opening 10 overs of the first T20I.