Uttarakhand Police on Friday took a dig on India skipper Virat Kohli for getting out on a duck against England in the first T20I and used the example of his dismissal to raise driving awareness.
Uttarakhand Police trolls Virat Kohli
In the match, Kohli got out on zero in an attempt to add quick runs to the scoreboard. The 32-year-old was caught by Chris Jordan off Adil Rashid‘s delivery in the third over and with this, India was reduced to 3/2.
“A helmet is not enough! It is necessary to drive in full consciousness or else you can get out on zero just like Kohli,” Uttarakhand Police’s official Twitter handle wrote.
हेलमेट लगाना ही काफ़ी नहीं है!
पूरे होशोहवास में गाड़ी चलाना ज़रूरी है,
वरना कोहली की तरह आप भी ज़ीरो पर आउट हो सकते हैं. #INDvEND #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/l66KD4NMdG— Uttarakhand Police (@uttarakhandcops) March 12, 2021
Virat Kohli’s Post-match Interview
Kohli said they would have to come up with “clarity of plans” for the next game, which will be held at the same ground on Sunday.
“We just weren’t aware enough of what we had to do on that kind of pitch, I think lack of execution of the shots that we tried to play out there in the middle is something we have to address as batsmen that it wasn’t an ideal day on the park,” he told Star Sports at the post-match presentation. “You have to accept your faults, come back in the next game with a bit more intent, clarity of plans, what are the areas you want to hit.
“It was a strange kind of a start for us. The wicket didn’t allow you to hit the kind of shots you wanted to. Shreyas’ innings was an example of how you could use the depth of the crease, ride the bounce because there was variable bounce at times, and hit the areas square of the wicket which others failed to do. It was just a below-par batting performance from us today and England made us pay for it.”
Kohli said the batsmen tried a new approach in this game by batting more freely as India use this five-match series to prepare for the T20 World Cup later in the year, but also said they “probably didn’t spend enough time in the middle to assess the conditions”.
“We looked to try a few things, but having said that as a batting side you have to accept the conditions,” Kohli said. “If the pitch allows you to play those kind of shots, you can be aggressive from ball one. But we got ahead of ourselves a little bit, probably didn’t spend enough time out there in the middle to assess the conditions. Shreyas did that but there were too many wickets down at that stage to get past 150-160 and had we got, say, eight wickets in hand at the end of 10 overs then we could have got a few more runs and made a game out of it.”
Kohli said falling without scoring was a part of the “ups and downs” in international cricket and even switching formats from Tests to T20Is could not be used as a reason for the loss on Friday.
“It’s not tough (changing formats), we’ve done that in the past,” he said. “I don’t think that that should be a factor within the group. We take a lot of pride playing good white-ball cricket, we have done that in the past, we have won the T20 series we played, and the one before that, and the one before that as well. These five games are the only ones we have before the T20 World Cup, so we need to try a few things as well, but having said that we can’t take anything lightly especially against a team like England which is so strong.”
India vs England 1st T20I Overview
After being asked to bat first, India only managed to score 124 runs from the allotted 20 overs. Shreyas Iyer (67) smashed a sensational half-century to rescue India from early blows but England kept taking wickets at regular intervals to restrict the hosts to 124/7.
Chasing a target of 125 runs, England witnessed a brilliant start with both openers, Jos Buttler and Jason Roy, scoring regular boundaries. From England, Roy was the highest run-getter with 49 runs. England chased down the target with 27 balls remaining.
With this victory, the Eoin Morgan-led side has gained a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
