Edgbaston| England and English cricket conditions are a fantastic place to be in when action is in full swing, but what is consistent with England is rain delays. Not just one, but multiple rain delays which get extremely frustrating both for the players and the viewers. Be it any venue, any season in the country, the playing conditions might differ but what remains consistent is the regular interruption of rain.
The 2019 ICC World Cup which was conducted in the United Kingdom came under heavy criticism as rain played a spoilsport in most of the matches. The Indian fans were furious when India's round-robin match against New Zealand was canceled. It just did not stop there. India's semi-final match against New Zealand was plagued by the English condition and the match spilled over to the second day.
The Kiwi pace battery made most of the new ball and swinging conditions which triggered an Indian batting collapse and as a result, the Indian team was eliminated from the World Cup. Certainly, human beings do not have any control over the weather but English conditions guarantee one fact that it is going to rain which impacts the game plans of the teams involved.
India is touring England once again and the problem just doesn't seem to end. The first day's play at Edgbaston was briefly delayed but come day 2, things and the situation worsened as two sessions were hampered by three rain delays.
Here is how Twitter reacted:
England Playing XI: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Sam Billings, Matty Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson
India Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah