India vs England 2021: Wasim Jaffer Believes England's Collapse In The First Innings Was The Reason For Their Loss

Former India opener, Wasim Jaffer has aired his views on the recently concluded day-night Test match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad which the hosts won by 10 wickets against England and took an unassailable lead of 2-1 in the series with one game remaining.

With the loss, England is knocked out from the race of the World Test Championship final. However, not just the loss, but the manner in which England has earned them severe criticism.

While a section of people has attributed the spin-friendly pitch at the Motera to the dominance of India – however, the other section has rained down heavily on the England batting line-up, which registered totals of 112 and 81 in the game and has not gone past 200 in their last 5 innings.

The Test match lasted for 842 deliveries – the shortest completed Test in terms of balls since 1935 – and was completed in a little over 5 sessions as the 28 of the 30 wickets to fell in the game went into the account of spinners. Hence, the talk about the pitch, similar to those during the second Chennai game, was bound to emerge.

England batsmen batted with poor technique: Wasim Jaffer

Wasim Jaffer has echoed the words of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and several former India cricketers, who all said that the batsmen on both sides batted poorly as more than half of the wickets for the spinner came with the straighter deliveries and fewer with the one that turned.

Jaffer took Twitter and posted tweets from former England players, Nasser Hussain, Sir Geoffrey Boycott, and Michael Atherton, where all three lamented the collapse of Joe Root’s side from 74/2 to 112 all out in the first innings.

The 43-year-old asserted that it was the English batsmen’s substandard batting technique and approach against the Indian spinner which led to their collapse, and not the pitch.

“Completely agree with @nassercricket, @GeoffreyBoycott  & @Athersmike. Eng were 73-2 after winning the toss on a pitch where 250 would have been a really good score. That they were all out for 112 was primarily due to poor technique/approach. That’s where match was lost. #INDvsENG,” Wasim Jaffer tweeted.

Speaking of the World Test Championship, India is sitting on the top of the table after consecutive victories followed by New Zealand and Australia. While India has knocked out England from the race to the final, Virat Kohli’s side needs to avoid a defeat in the fourth Test, other Australia will qualify for the final to face New Zealand at Lord’s in June.

Completely agree with @nassercricket, @GeoffreyBoycott & @Athersmike. Eng were 73-2 after winning the toss on a pitch where 250 would have been a really good score. That they were all out for 112 was primarily due to poor technique/approach. That's where match was lost. #INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/T5q5xtNA27

— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) February 26, 2021

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