Anil Kumble termed the Indian national cricket team as “pretty average” after their loss in the first match of the five-match Test series against the England national cricket team.
It was a shocking defeat for India in the first Test match against England in Hyderabad. India, who had a good lead in the first innings, failed to win the first Test of the five-match series. India dominated the first two days of the match and were in no position to lose the match. However, it was batsman Ollie Pope and later bowler Tom Hartley, who began England’s comeback in the match.
Ollie Pope, on the one hand, played an explicit knock of 196 runs and helped England take a 230-run lead in the second innings. Pope also surpassed former Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar’s record of 188* runs against India and became the fourth-highest individual run-scorer by a visiting batsman against India. Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower leads the list, while Brendon McCullum and Sir Garfield Sobers are in second or third place.
On the other hand, debutant Tom Hartley, who was quite average in the first innings, devastated the Indians’ batting line-up in the second and took a seven-wicket haul. Hartley took a total of nine wickets in the match and made a huge statement across the cricket world.
Anil Kumble criticizes the Indian team
Former Indian bowler Anil Kumble criticized India’s performance on the third and fourth day of the match believing that the hosts were quite average. Anil Kumble praised England and said the visitors were brilliant in the last two days. India’s heads fell on the field on the third and fourth day, but the credit goes to England, for the way they batted and bowled.
Anil Kumble told the broadcaster: “England have been brilliant over the last two days. India was quite normal. On the field, you could see heads falling as they played. But the credit goes to England, for the way they batted, for the way they came and bowled.”
“Tom Hartley, a debutant, hits a six on his first ball. Then the first five overs were played at about seven runs per over. To come back and bat really well, take two wickets in the first innings and seven in the second and win the match for England was absolutely fantastic. England have done exceptionally well,” Indian legend Anil Kumble said on JioCinema’s ‘Match Center Live’ show at the end of the match.
India also added an embarrassing record next to its name. In the 91-year history of Indian cricket, this is the first time that India has lost a Test match by taking a lead of more than 100 runs in the first innings at home. Also, this is the second time a team has lost in India by leading by more than 100 runs in the first innings. The previous match was in 2001, when India snatched victory from Australia by 274 runs.
India witnessed a huge drop in the 2023-25 World Test Championship standings and fell to fifth place. The two-time WTC finalists will now look to win the second Test to be played from February 2 at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.
India have a lot to think about from the first Test match and will look to work on the mistakes they made in the first Test. Indian batsmen like Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer may lose their places and Rajat Patidar and Dhruv Jurel may get a chance to take their place for the second Test.