Recently, India beat England in Test, ODI and T20I series at home. The visitors had a great start to their tour of the Indian subcontinent. Before touring India, Joe Root-led side had beat Sri Lanka by 2-0 in the test series. England continued their form by beating India in the 1st Chennai Test. Now, England batsman Ollie Pope reveals an interesting incident involving Virat Kohli.
Ollie Pope reveals warning of Virat Kohli
Pope told that Virat Kohli had warned him during the series opener that the next matches are going to be tough for England. England had posted a mammoth 578-run total in the first innings and bowlers restricted the Indian side on 337 runs. The incident happened during the 2nd innings of visitors when Ashwin’s bowls started spinning a bit.
Ollie Pope told ESPNcricinfo how a confident Virat Kohli warned him, “I remember standing at the non-striker’s end and Kohli came up to me and said ‘this is the last of the flat wickets”. At that moment 23-year old realized that the rest of the series is going to be difficult for the English batsmen.
The England batsman further added, “I’m not saying (India) felt they had to produce those wickets, but the fact they’ve gone away from their flat wickets for three days, then spin on day four and five, which is generally the theme out there, it was quite a compliment to us in how we went about our business and a compliment to our bowlers.”
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India was on the brink of ICC world test championship exit after losing the series opener. They had to win the series by at least 2-1 or 2-0 to make their way to the final of the tournament. If the series had ended on a 2-2 draw, India would have knocked out of the tournament.
However, the Virat Kohli-led side performed exceptionally well in the rest 3 matches and won them all. India has qualified for the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship. They will face New Zealand in Southampton in the title match. The match is scheduled to play between 18 June to 22 June.