Captain Kohli should take some responsibility for Edgbaston loss: Hussain:

Nasser Hussain felt Kohli allowed England to sneak away after having them on the mat © Getty

India captain Virat Kohli answered his critics in style with a stunning 149 in India's first innings at Edgbaston, but it wasn't enough to secure victory for his team with India losing by a slender margin of 31 runs. Having arrived in England with the bitter memories of 2014 still haunting him, Kohli showcased his batting process during the course of a superb innings, one that gave his team a real chance of beating the odds and securing victory.

Kohli followed his first innings 149 with a neat 51 in the second innings, but unfortunately for him, India went down meekly after his dismissal early on the fourth day. While his batting received rich praise, former England captain, Nasser Hussain, reckoned that captain Kohli should take some blame for the loss, owing to a few questionable calls which eventually cost his team a famous win.

Speaking to official broadcaster Sky Sports during the post-match talk, Hussain praised Kohli's efforts with the bat but felt the Indian captain was culpable with a few bad calls during England's second innings. "Kohli was phenomenal in this game. He deserved to be on the winning side for the way he played with the tail. He single-handedly brought India back into the Test match. I do think he [Kohli] should take some of the responsibility for the loss, though.

"England were 87/7 with Curran and Adil Rashid at the crease and for some reason Ravichandran Ashwin went out of the game for an hour. India lost control then - he needs to look back on his captaincy and say 'when I've got a bloke who averages 19 against left-handers and a 20-year-old left-hander on strike, why did I take him off?" Hussain said.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has also questioned some of the calls from the team management. Ganguly believes that frequent changes in the playing XI would only result in confused minds and insecurity. Writing on his Instagram account, he said: "One criticism for Virat Kohli is that he should give a consistent run to his batters & more time before dropping them. The failure against swing in English conditions can't be used as an excuse anymore as everyone knows that it's what you get when you come to England."

Ganguly's criticism comes in the wake of players like Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane - three batsmen at the top of the order, who have either constantly been shuffled in their batting positions or have been left out of the playing XI. "The captain should give confidence to his players. It's his team and only he can change their mindset. He will have to sit with them and tell them that if he can do it so can they. He should give them time and tell them to go out and play without any fear. It is true that after continuous chopping and changing of the playing XI, players can get afraid that after all these years they've failed to garner the faith of the team management," the former India captain wrote.

The two teams now move across to Lord's, London, for the second Test, starting on Thursday (August 9).