Virat Kohli played his role to perfection, producing another splendid knock. But the job done by the England quicks earlier on a “tacky” Motera stadium pitch had derailed India to such an extent that the captain’s late flourish was just not enough to help his team reach a total that could have put the opposition under pressure.

Kohli accepted that as well. “Well, you don’t want to play knocks that don’t help the team. The pitch was tacky, but they (England quicks) had extra pace and hit the good areas,” he said at the post-match presentation.

What also hurt India was KL Rahul’s failure at the top. Kohli and the rest of the team management, however, are backing the opener.

“I too was going through a lean patch recently. He (Rahul)’s a champion player and he’ll continue to be one of our main batsmen along with Rohit (Sharma).

“If you look at his statistics in the last two to three years, they are probably better than anyone in the format. T20 cricket is an instinctive game and once a few shots come off, he will be back in the zone,” Kohli said.

Batting coach Vikram Rathour echoed similar sentiments.

“Look, anybody can have a lean phase. And KL has been our best player in T20 cricket for the last one year with an average of 40 plus and a strike rate of 145 or so. Three failures don’t change the fact.

“This is the time we need to support him as a team and we are absolutely sure he will overcome this lean phase. It’s just a matter of one shot and KL can be back in form,” Rathour said.

Toss was certainly a factor, which Kohli agreed, while also expressing his displeasure over his team’s body language in the second half. “If you lose the toss, embrace what has been asked of you as a team.

“Also, I don’t think our body language in the field in the second half was acceptable,” he remarked.

Besides, India’s bowlers also had no answer to Jos Buttler’s brilliance with the bat. “People don’t expect me to attack spinners, so I tried to take it on. It was nice to chance my arm against (Yuzvendra) Chahal. The first six off Chahal got me off and running,” Buttler, adjudged the Man of the Match, said.

The win for England was also special in the sense it was captain Eoin Morgan’s 100th T20I appearance. In fact, it was Buttler who had handed the cap to Morgan before the start of play.
“He (Morgan) has taken our white-ball fortunes to a completely new place that we’ve never been before,” Buttler stressed.