Atherton's sharp critique of Virat Kohli following Bengaluru defeat: 'His CV now boasts two of India's...'

There has been another instance of a team scoring '46 all out' in Test history. This unfortunate record was achieved by England 30 years ago against West Indies at the Port of Spain. It marked their second lowest score in history, with the previous instance occurring 107 years prior. As for India, who suffered the same fate last week in Bengaluru against New Zealand, it was their lowest-ever score at home and third lowest overall in Test history.

Taking to his column for The Times a day after India's eight-wicket loss in Bengaluru against Tom Latham's men, Michael Atherton, who was the captain of that 1994 England side in West Indies, drew a similarity between the two collapses as he cheekily welcomed Rohit Sharma to his club.

“Welcome to my world, Rohit. There is not that much common ground between myself and India’s swashbuckling captain, Rohit Sharma, but we both now know what it is like to captain a side that has been bowled out for 46. All the feverish adulation from a billion fans doesn’t diminish the hurt pride that follows such ignominy,” he wrote.

"Earlier this year marked the 30th anniversary of my team’s 46 all out in Port of Spain, Trinidad, highlighted with a lengthy recollection in these pages. Having parked the events for so long to the back of my mind, there was a grisly kind of pleasure in revisiting them again.

The memories came flooding back readily. The dramatic bowling of Curtly Ambrose, knees and arms pumping on an increasingly uneven pitch; the intense atmosphere of the Queen’s Park Oval, in the days when Test cricket was well supported in the Caribbean; and the growing sense of panic and doom in the dingy, sweaty England dressing room that only hours before had been supremely confident of victory," he added.

Following the unfortunate collapse last week, Rohit admitted in the press conference that it was a misjudgment on his part, pertaining to reading the conditions in Chinnaswamy and picking three spinners in the line-up. While the act was hailed by veteran India cricketers, it did not sit well with fans on social media, who lashed out at the captain, calling him “clueless” after the loss.

“Why, by the way, is there greater opprobrium towards a captain who wins the toss, inserts the opposition, disastrously, over one who bats first and it all goes wrong? Rohit owned up, but it seems unlikely in years to come that he will be reminded of it in the way that Nasser Hussain was about Brisbane in 2002, when, having inserted Australia, his bowlers were flogged around the Gabba as Australia reached 364 for two at the end of the first day,” he said.

The former England opener, however, took a dig at ex-India captain Virat Kohli, saying that his glorious career, filled with record wins and batting milestones, now includes two of India's lowest-ever team totals, reminding the 35-year-old of the infamous ‘36 all out’ in Adelaide in the team's last tour of Australia in 2020/21.

“More than a hundred years separated these two performances. Yet India’s 46 all out in the first Test against New Zealand came only four years after their lowest-ever score, 36 all out against Australia in Adelaide. India’s batsmen plumbed the depths again before the previous embarrassment had slipped from memory. Virat Kohli’s glittering CV now includes being a part of two of India’s three lowest-ever scores,” he added.