IND vs ENG 2021: “Bowl fourth-stump line” – Ollie Robinson reveals plan for getting Virat Kohli out

England fast bowler Ollie Robinson, who is playing only his third Test match, got the prized wicket of Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Day 1 of the 2nd Test at Lord’s.

Kohli, who is going through a lean patch with the bat, looked set throughout his 42-run knock before an outswinger from Robinson undid the skipper’s hard work after a 103-ball stay in the middle.

Speaking on Virat Kohli’s wicket, Ollie Robinson revealed that the plan was to bowl the fourth-stump channel outside the off-stump and it worked.

“Virat Kohli is probably my biggest wicket to date, so I was happy with that. It was a huge moment. The plan for him was always to bowl the fourth-fifth stump line, back of a length. Luckily the plan worked,” Robinson said at the end of the day’s play.

The demons are back for Virat Kohli as he continues to look to play away from the body. After a golden duck in the first Test, the talismanic run-scorer fought hard for his 42 at Lord’s but that fourth-stump channel has returned to hurt him once again after 2014.

Despite Virat Kohli’s dismissal, KL Rahul scored an unbeaten century to propel India to 276/3 at the end of Day 1.

“Our bowlers were a bit unlucky” – Ollie Robinson

Asked to bat first, the Indian openers showed great application to play the new ball. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul added 126 runs for the first wicket before Rohit departed 16 runs short of a well-deserved century.

After dominating the English bowlers all day, the visitors looked a bit anxious after the dismissal of Virat Kohli but managed to reach Stumps with seven wickets in hand.

Ollie Robinson, who returned with figures of 1/47 from 23 overs, believes the ball missed the edge a couple of times and that England were unlucky.

“There were probably 10-15 play-and-misses that I could count and, on another day, we might have had them two-three down early on,” Ollie Robinson said.

“We definitely looked at conditions and thought we could get a few early ones here. I think on another day it (wickets) might have happened. I felt we did bowl well. We toiled hard against their batters and to be fair, they played well. It’s just one of those days where they didn’t nick it to be honest,” he added.

England would want a couple of early wickets on Day 2 to put India on the backfoot and bundle them out for a low total.