Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckons India is missing Virat Kohli’s intensity in the field against England in the ongoing series. Kohli pulled out of the Test series for personal reasons and later revealed that he and his wife, Anushka Sharma, have been blessed with a baby boy, Akaay.

Manjrekar noted that Kohli always pushes his teammates and gets the home crowd behind the team when the fielders are quiet. Meanwhile, India conceded an above-par score of 353 runs against England in the first innings of the fourth Test match at Ranchi after Joe Root scored an unbeaten knock of 122 runs.

“Virat Kohli is one of those guys. If the fielders are quiet, he’ll get the crowd to back the players and bring energy. When Kohli is out on the field, he gets that intensity going. India are missing him. There’s no one quite like him. He carries that energy,” Manrjekar said on commentary on the second day’s play.

Virat Kohli has amassed 8848 runs in 113 Test matches at an average of 49.16 and India has deeply missed his services in the middle order as well. Kohli recently scored 172 runs in two Test matches against South Africa at an average of 43 and played at the top of his game.

Meanwhile, England have put themselves in front as India ended the second day’s play at 219-7 as the middle order once again failed to deliver. Yashasvi Jaiswal continued his rich form as he scored 73 runs but the rest of the batters failed to make any substantial contribution.

England rookie spinner Shoaib Bashir was brilliant for the visitors, returning with 4-84 on the second day. Furthermore, Tom Hartley bagged two wickets and the hosts are still trailing by 134 runs.

Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav are unbeaten at the crease after scoring 30 and 17 runs respectively.