Vikram Rathour opens up on India's failures
Edgbaston| India's style and tactics on day 4 against England in this final Test match has come under heavy scrutiny as England just requires 119 runs to win with 7 wickets in hand. India was required to bat for the entire day and pile on a score of over 400 to make things difficult for the English team. The visiting team's plan was unclear as they tried to take on the English bowlers early on and lost their wickets in the process.
What stood out in the eyes of cricket experts and fans is India's tactics in negotiating the short delivery. England used a barrage of bouncers and made India's batting look extremely ordinary. India folded out for 245 and set England a target of 378 runs which now seems very possible to be chased down.
Taking the onus upon the Indian batting, coach Vikram Rathour said "I'll agree that we had a pretty ordinary day as far as batting is concerned. We were ahead, we were in a position where we could have batted them out of the game. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. A lot of them got starts but couldn't convert them. We were expecting one of them to play a big knock and have a big partnership but unfortunately, it didn't happen like that". The Indian batting coach felt that the Indian team did not display any kind of intent and things could have been handled properly.
In what turned out to be an absolute shocker for the Indian bowlers, Bairstow and Root stitched together an attacking partnership of 150 off 197 deliveries to hand England a massive advantage at the end of day 4. Skipper Bumrah brought India back in the game with wickets on either side of the lunch break after England openers Alex Lees (56 off 65) and Zak Crawley (46 off 76) dished out a great beating to the Indian bowlers.
From 107 for loss, it soon became 109 for three before the dangerous duo of Root (76 batting off 112) and Bairstow (72 batting off 87) frustrated the Indians with a commanding 150-run partnership off just 197 balls. Though the wicket did not offer much help, Indian bowlers were unable to maintain pressure on the English batters who played with the aggression that has become the hallmark of Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum's school of cricket.
(Inputs from PTI)
