Birmingham: England coach Trevor Bayliss said Monday that the seemingly peerless Virat Kohli can be put under pressure if the home team’s bowlers can continue to tame the rest of the Indian batting line-up in the ongoing Test series.
“If Virat Kohli is not the best batsman in the world, he’s very close to it. The way he played the first and second innings at Edgbaston was high-class stuff. If we can put pressure on the other batsmen in the Indian team, that’s going to add strain to him,” Bayliss told reporters here.
“I don’t think it’s any different for us. We’ve got a few guys who are not necessarily cemented in the team and that put extra pressure on people like Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow.
If you look at India’s first innings, with four early wickets gone, Kohli was not comfortable. He looked vulnerable. But then Kohli overcame the odds on a pitch that was really difficult to bat on,” added the England coach.
Bayliss said he expected the Indian team to learn quickly from the mistakes committed while tackling the moving ball just as his team would look to address the weakness handling spin, in the remaining four matches of the series.
“India are a very good team. We’re very much in the hunt here. When the ball’s moving, we’ve shown that a few of their guys do struggle against the moving ball. But I am sure they will adjust,” Bayliss asserted.
England have drafted in bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes to in place of Ben Stokes who will be be involved in a court case in Bristol. Also 20-year-old batsman Oliver Pope hase got his maiden call-up in place of Dawid Malan. All-rounder Stokes played a key role in England’s first Test win with four wickets including that of Kohli’s in the second innings at Edgbaston. The England coach said that he expected other players to step up in Stoke’s absence.
“It means that someone else has got to take up the slack,” Bayliss said. “It will be interesting to see who can step up. Someone, or two or three guys, have to do the extra yards. That will be a telling factor for the next match.”