Indian captain Virat Kohli rued the lack of application from batsmen, especially the team's top-order, after an ordinary batting show cost them the first of the ongoing five-Test series in England at Edgbaston.
Kohli lauded the way Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav stuck in there in the middle with himself in the first innings and urged his batsmen to learn from the two tail-enders.
"A team like England is relentless, they made us work very hard for our runs. Our shot selection could have been better. We definitely need to apply ourselves better with the bat, but England came back superbly and we need to take the positives and move forward," Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony on Saturday.
"There is a lot to learn from the lower order in the first innings, Ishant and Umesh got stuck in the middle."
India eventually lost the match by 31 runs as Ben Stokes picked up Kohli, Pandya and Mohammed Shami's wickets on the fourth day morning, which witnessed a packed crowd at Edgbaston.
Captain Kohli top-scored in both the innings with scores of 149 and 51. In the first innings, the Indian captain took it upon himself after a top-order collapse to score more than 50% of the total (274) and made sure the visitors got close to England's first innings total of 287.
Kohli hardly had any support from the specialist batsmen but Ishant and Umesh stuck in and batted 32 balls between them as the captain smashed the English attack all over the park, adding 92 runs with the No. 10 and 11.
In the second innings, Kohli was undone by a Stokes' inswinger while batting on 51 on Saturday, in chase of 194. Pandya batted the tail (Ishant and Umesh who faced 23 balls) but was unable to take the team past the line.
We need to think how to regroup: Kohli
Kohli added that one more partnership in the second innings could have helped them get home. However, he insisted that the individuals in the team need to sit down and asses and come out positive for the remainder of the series.
Both the teams will now head to Lord's for the second Test, which will begin on Thursday, August 8.
"There is no hiding from this game; we need to be positive, relentless and whatever the feelings are would come out now in no time. We need to take the negatives out and build on the positives as we go on," Kohli added.
"One more partnership and we could have pulled this home. We need to think how to regroup and get back for the next match."
India has been one-man batting unit for quite some time away from home. During their 2-1 defeat in South Africa earlier this year, the bowlers did their jobs by picking up all 60 wickets but the batting let the visitors down.
Kohli had top scored with 286 runs from six innings and Pandya was the next best with just 119 runs.
