Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif is hopeful that it isn’t too late till Virat Kohli comes back to the Indian squad in the ongoing series against England. Kohli pulled out of the first two Test matches against England due to personal reasons.

Kohli’s services were deeply missed in the opening Test, which India lost by 28 runs at Hyderabad. The hosts had to chase 231 runs in the second innings but the batters failed to deliver the goods.

In Kohli’s absence, there is a lot of inexperience in the batting line-up. Furthermore, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out of the second Test match due to quadriceps and hamstring injury respectively.

“What I feel is that an Indian ODI team is playing Test cricket at the moment. Be it Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma or Shubman Gill, all are strokemakers. Gill loves to hit shots, but doesn’t have much confidence in his defence. So he has to make adjustments to his defensive technique to see off good bowling spells. Even Shreyas Iyer is an aggressive player,” Kaif stated in an interview with Times of India.

“I hope it isn’t too late till Virat Kohli comes (after the second Test). Dhruv Jurel or on current form, even Sarfaraz Khan can get a look in. But in the absence of KL Rahul and Jadeja, the Indian batting will weaken, no doubt about that. Axar may have to bat at No.8 and that’s why I feel Washington Sundar can get a look-in because they want batting till No. 9.”

Meanwhile, India could have taken an even bigger lead in the first innings but lost the last three wickets without adding a single run. Furthermore, Indian batters could not get the job done in the second essay.

The second Test match between India and England will be played at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam from 2nd February.