'Rohit Sharma Past His Best, India Badly Miss...": England Great's Bombastic Verdict

Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott feels India skipper Rohit Sharma is "past his prime" and the hosts badly missed the peerless Virat Kohli in the series opener against England in Hyderabad Despite enjoying a strong position after the first innings, India lost by 28 runs against England in the first Test to trail 0-1 in the five-match series. In the absence of Kohli, the onus was on Rohit to shoulder the responsibility in the batting department but he could only manage 24 and 39 in two innings as the Indian batting crumbled big time while chasing 231 on a fourth day pitch. And Boycott believes it is a golden chance for England to beat India in their own backyard after 12 years.

"This India team are ripe for the taking and England have a golden chance to be the first side to topple them on their own patch for 12 years," Boycott wrote in his column for 'The Daily Telegraph'.

"India badly miss Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja has a hamstring injury and will not play the second Test. Their captain Rohit Sharma is nearly 37 and past his best. He makes pretty cameos but has scored only two Test hundreds at home in four years. They are also weak in the field. They dropped Ollie Pope on 110 and that cost them 86 runs. It lost them the match." The Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel looked a pale shadow of themselves on a spin-friendly but not exactly dust-bowl of a Hyderabad wicket.

The English batters came out with a perfect tactical ploy, using sweeps and reverse sweeps to great effect to counter the threat.

"England bamboozled India with their sweeps and reverse sweeps and to lose after taking a 190-run lead will be mind-blowing for India. It has never happened to them before on their own pitches