England vs India 2022

Graeme Swann comes out in support of Virat Kohli after his low scores in the fifth Test

Former England cricketer Graeme Swann has come out in support of Virat Kohli who’s been going through the worst form of his life. The star batter has not scored a century since his last 75 innings in international cricket. Swann said that the Indian commentators are a bit harsh on Kohli as the ball he was dismissed on was just ‘unplayable’.

“You can say what you want, I don’t care, who is batting in any period of Test history if you can survive that delivery you are very, very lucky. That is unplayable. It’s a lucky catch in the end,” Swann said while speaking to Sony Sports.

“Regardless, if you are looking to get on the front foot, back foot that ball is a ripsnorter. For an English point of view, I often find that whenever Indian commentators talk about Virat, I always think ‘wow they are quite harsh on him’. The standards are so high for Virat, I thought he was very at ease today,” he added.

Kohli was looking in fine touch before he was dismissed by a peach of a delivery by Stokes. He arrived at the crease with full of confidence and played beautiful cover drives. It seemed as if the star batter meant business and was finally going to end his century drought. But he was sent back to the pavilion by a vicious delivery that bounced a lot more than he expected and took his edge which was caught by Joe Root who put his quick reflexes at work after Sam billings failed to grab the ball.

Kohli was given a send-off by England’s fan group ‘Barmy-army’ for his verbal duel with Jonny Bairstow early on in the day.

India ended Day 3 on the score of 125 for 3, leading England by 257 runs. They bowled out England for 284 runs in their first innings as Jonny Bairstow scored a brilliant hundred. India will be looking to set a big target out of England’s grasp on Day 4 and bat them out of the game.