Ashes 2023: "It's Interesting To See Odd Field Placings" - Allan Border Surprised With England's Tactics

Former Australian cricketer Allan Border was astounded by the way skipper Ben Stokes applied tactics to get rid of Usman Khawaja on Day 3. Allan Border though heaped praise on England’s attacking approach.

England have taken a lead of 162 runs and have 5 wickets in hand. The pitch has started to deteriorate in the morning session of Day 4 itself and Aussies would be keen to get rid of Ben Stokes as the batter has looked in complete control and has scored 13 runs in 34 balls.

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The afternoon session would be decisive because if England managed to score another 1000-odd runs then they would be in a state of ascendancy. It won’t be wrong to say that we can expect some lusty blows from Jonny Bairstow.

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I really enjoyed watching it unfold- Allan Border

Allan Border was seen having an interaction with SEN Breakfast and was quite astonished to see the field placements against Aussie batters and compared it with under-12s and said that the tactics looked odd which was against the norm.

“It’s interesting the way England are playing, whether it’s sustainable over the course of the whole Test series, that remains to be seen. It is interesting to see odd field placings and different things going on, the field you might see in under-12s sort of stuff,” said Allan Border.

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“We have got a little ring field with blokes surrounding like 10 meters from the bat. Looks pretty odd definitely, against the norm, but it just plays with your head a little bit. I really enjoyed watching it unfold,” he added.

Also Read: Ashes 2023: WATCH – Joe Root Catches Everyone By Surprise As He Plays Reverse Scoop On First Ball Of Day 4; Follows It With 6 And 4 On Same Shots

It was a pretty flat track and very batter friendly but…. – Allan Border

Allan Border questioned Pat Cummins’ tactics while the side was bowling first and said that the Aussies had deep points and deep backward squares present. Allan Border thought that the Aussies should have fought fire with fire and said that the batters were given enough chances to rotate the strike on a regular basis. Allan Border thought that the team was quite defensive.

“I think initially we were. Day 1 – we got to bowl with a brand new ball with a pretty good bowling attack and we had deep points and deep backward squares. I thought we just missed a beat there in fighting fire with fire,” said Allan Border.

“Yes, it was a pretty flat track and very batter-friendly, but I still think they were allowed to get off-strike, accumulate a lot of runs just through singles, and then they were hitting good shots amongst all that, the run rate was phenomenal,” he stated.

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“I think we paid a bit of price on that Day 1 with being a little bit defensive but in saying that, we stayed in the game by taking wickets as well along the way,” he added.

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