Edgbaston| Former head coach, celebrated cricket commentator, and former India player Ravi Shastri does not mince his words when he expresses his opinion on something. Under Ravi Shastri's stint, India completely turned their fortunes around in Test cricket and became one of the best traveling teams in difficult overseas conditions.
The Indian team doesn't seem to take any lessons from their previous failures. With a lead of 132 runs at the end of day 3, the Indian batting was expected to capitalize and set up a huge score for the hosts, but they failed to do so as they bundled out for 245 runs. The visitors have set a target of 378 for England and as of now, they are just 119 runs behind. Before this England have chased down 359 at Headingley against Australia in the 2019-20 Ashes series. If England chases this target down, this will be their highest ever chase.
Ravi Shastri who was India's head coach in the previous four Test matches did not look or sound very impressed with India's tactics on day 4 of the Edgbaston Test match. While commentating for the Sky Sports Cricket team at Edgbaston, Shastri said "I think (it was) disappointing, to say the least, because they could have batted England out of this contest. They needed to bat two sessions and I thought they were defensive, they were timid today, especially after lunch".
The former India head coach further added "Even after they had lost those wickets, they could have taken some chances. Runs were important at that stage of the game and I thought they just went into a shell, lost those wickets too quickly, and gave enough time for England to bat today". Not just Shastri, but Kevin Pietersen has also questioned India's tactics for Day 4.
"I don't think Bumrah got his tactics right today at all, and I say that with the greatest deal of respect. There is no way with a reverse swinging ball that he should make it that easy for the batter because the batter is trying so hard to decipher which way that ball is swinging. When it's reverse swinging at 90mph, the nicest place to bat is at the non-striker's end, and the ability to get to the non-striker's end as easily as they did this afternoon, it's too easy", said Kevin Pietersen.
(Inputs from PTI)
