Ordinary Day With Bat Pushed India On Backfoot, Says Vikram Rathore Batting Coach Of India

By the end of Sunday’s play, it looked as if India were on the verge of registering a historic win in England. But a “ordinary” day with the bat on Monday saw India’s chances of chasing down their highest target in a Test appear. As well as being denied the first series win in England since 2007. There is still some cricket to be played; England need 119 runs, India needs seven wickets; England have Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow at the crease, who have shared a partnership of 150 runs. Sam Billings and Ben Stokes are still to come to bat. In such a situation, the responsibility of India’s victory will be on the shoulders of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, who are expected to play the role of the hero of victory.

This match has gone a little differently, sometimes India ahead and sometimes England. But when the crucial time came, England batted well and won and took the lead in the match. By the end of yesterday evening, the match ended with the host team in control, with India batting coach Vikram Rathor admitting that a poor session with the bat in the morning led India into the match.

India started the day ahead of 257 runs with seven wickets in hand and Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant came to the crease. They were all out for 245 immediately after lunch, losing seven wickets at a gap of 92 runs. This meant a target of 378 for England which at that time seemed too much. While still enough – England has never chased a total of this size – should have been much higher.

“The plans didn’t work out,” Rathore said. “I agree we had a pretty normal day as far as batting is concerned. We were ahead in the game. We were in a position where we could have really taken them (England) out of the game. Unfortunately So, it didn’t happen. A lot of people started but couldn’t really convert. We were expecting one of them to play a big innings and make a big partnership but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

Shreyas Iyer looked at least in control against England’s short-ball plan but Shardul Thakur, Shami and Bumrah were all dismissed in similar fashion. The short ball continued to haunt India in the first session as a weakness.

Rathore said, “Yes, they used a short-ball plan against us in the field. We had to show a little better, not the intention, but the strategy. We could have handled it a little differently. People tried to play shots. , but didn’t really convert or execute them well. They got out at that. We’ll have to rethink how we’re going to tackle the same kind of bowlers in a similar situation next time. There will need to be a better strategy against this.”

There has already been a precedent for India’s possible defeat in this match, as recently as January in Cape Town. In the decider of the low-scoring series, India took only a small lead to lose that advantage in their second innings. Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shami and Bumrah fell on short delivery as India lost by seven wickets.

“Obviously, at this stage you expect people to bowl short balls against us and especially against the Indian team, people have been using short balls for a long time,” Rathore said.

“People have their own way of dealing with it. As a batsman you have your own way of dealing with it. We don’t really say whether you have to do it or do it. As a batsman, you have to decide accordingly. Need to take the game, what suits you in that situation and in those circumstances. Unfortunately, whatever plans we had today, we couldn’t really execute them.

“Today was the day we were ahead. We really should have batted better and got him out of the game with our batting. But unfortunately we didn’t.”

Rathore is still hopeful that things will turn around on Tuesday morning. “It’s the kind of wicket where one breakthrough can bring something else – as happened on either side of tea today when England lost three wickets in the space of two runs and the match looked to be India’s grasp,” he said.

“Two wickets early in the morning and the game will open again,” he said. “We know that, we understand the game, it’s still a big target. It’s still over 100 runs. We take two wickets early and the game can still open.

“The kind of bowling Shami and Bumrah are bowling, it is not beyond them that they get a wicket, then one, two, three can fall. And it can get us back in the game.