“Koi tension nahi hai, 4-1 karenge” – Chetan Sharma backs India to win five-match Test series against England ahead of Vizag Test

Former BCCI Chief Selector Chetan Sharma has backed India to come back strongly against England after losing the opening Test by 28 runs in Hyderabad.

The former cricketer believes that the hosts will win the remaining games despite losing the likes of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja due to injuries.

The 58-year-old pointed out that India were in a similar scenario during England's last tour of India in 2020/21 when the visitors won the opening game in Chennai, but India sealed the series 3-1.

For the unversed, Ollie Pope smashed 196 against India on a spin-friendly pitch despite England trailing by 190 runs in their second innings. Defending 231, debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley spun a web for the Indian players, bagging seven wickets to win the match for the visitors.

Chetan Sharma told India Today:

“Koi tension nahi hai, 4-1 karenge (No tension, we’ll make it 4-1). Athithiyo ka Swagat kiya hai hamne, koi problem nahi (We’ve welcomed our guests, there’s no problem). Ek mistake ho jata hay (Sometimes you make a mistake). I won’t call it a mistake, they played well.”

Sharma continued:

“Kahin na kahin ham pehla match hare hain (Somewhere we lost the opening match), toh kehte hain ki jo jeeta woh Sikander (there’s a phrase that the one who wins becomes a champion) but it’s not the case here. India have a lot of potential.”

He added:

“We had also lost the opening Test in Chennai three years ago and then we thrashed them [England] 3-1. Similarly, history will repeat itself and in the next game, Indian team will look completely different. There’ll be aggression and according to me, we are winning the series 4-1.”

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Vikram Rathour backs Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill ahead of 2nd Test vs England

India batting coach Vikram Rathour has backed Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill to return to form after failing to score a single half-century in their last 10 innings. The duo needs to make amends in the absence of KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja.

Rathour told reporters in the pre-match press conference (via The Indian Express):

“There are young batters in our team who have not played much Test cricket. So, we need to be a bit patient with them. Batters like Gill and Iyer will eventually start getting big runs, I’m sure of it.”

Meanwhile, India have included Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar, and Washington Sundar. The second Test will begin in Visakhapatnam on February 2.