Exclusive: Virat Kohli's absence against England will be a 'massive loss' for India, says Anil Kumble

Former India head coach Anil Kumble believes the absence of Virat Kohli will be a “massive loss” for Team India in the first two Tests against England. Virat Kohli is set to miss the first two Tests in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam due to personal reasons, with 30-year-old Rajat Patidar having been named his replacement. The first Test starts in Hyderabad from Thursday (25 January).

Kumble said that it was crucial for the hosts that Kohli returns to the setup “as soon as possible”.

“It’s a massive miss. He is a key player for India. We have seen that throughout his career. Number four in Test match cricket is a very important number. He’s scored runs, piled up tons. It’s important that he comes back into the side as soon as possible,” Kumble said during an exclusive interaction with Rupha Ramani on the First Sports show.

Kumble feels the task will be cut out for skipper Rohit Sharma now that Kohli will miss the first two Tests.

“Obviously, he’s going to miss a couple of games for personal reasons and it’s a massive loss. He’s an experienced player. Rohit and Virat at the top-order. These two were the key, and now with Virat not there, the onus will be on Rohit Sharma. In that sense, it’s going to be a very big miss with Virat not being there in the batting lineup,” Kumble, who is also an expert with JioCinema, added.

There have been discussions regarding if England’s Bazball approach would work against India on Indian soil but Kumble believes Ben Stokes and Co will have to learn to balance between being playing aggressive and defensive cricket.

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“It’s a wonderful refreshing approach. It certainly has worked for England in its favour because of the conditions they have played in. They have played in England, where the pitches are very flat. They have gone through Asian conditions in Pakistan where again the pitches were flat. It’s going to be interesting to see how that this kind of an approach will work.

“Yes, being aggressive certainly will work in Indian conditions because if the wickets start to take turn, then certainly you need an aggressive approach when it comes to batting. But at the same time in Indian conditions, against some outstanding spin bowling with Ashwin, Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, the batters also need strong defence.

“It’s not just the aggressive approach that we’ve seen the Bazball do but you also need to have a good defence to survive. It will be interesting to see the balance that the England batters take,” commented the former Karnataka cricketer.