ENG vs IND 208: 3rd Test - Indian Pacers Created a Fear Among England Batsmen - Sunil Gavaskar

Former India selector Sunil Gavaskar feels India pacers have managed to instill a sense of fear among the England batsmen in the ongoing five-match Test series.

Meanwhile, India bounced back 2-1 with a 203-run victory in the third Test. They took just 17 balls on day five to get the final wicket of James Anderson as he gloved one off Ravichandran Ashwin to Ajinkya Rahane.

England finished their second innings on 317 after Jos Buttler’s maiden Test century provided some joy in otherwise a poor batting display from the hosts. The Indian seamers put up a brilliant efforts bagging 19 out of the 20 wickets that fell.

Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya and the returning Jasprit Bumrah used the seaming conditions to their advantage and ran through an out-of-form English batting order.

Speaking to AajTak, Sunil Gavaskar noted that team India fast bowlers have managed to give England a taste of their own medicine.

“Before we saw that the foreign pacers bowl bouncers and our lower-order batsmen would get out easily to them but the way the Indian pacers have bowled, we have seen that there was a fear in the eyes of the England batsmen. The tailenders were out in both the innings to bouncers, it was looking like the Indian bowlers were giving them a taste of their own medicine,” Gavaskar said.

The conditions at Lord’s were not great for batting

Sunil Gavaskar feels if India played a practise game or two between the ODIs and Test, they would have won at Lord’s. India suffered a humiliating loss in the second Test after a poor display from the batsmen.

“Our team is really good. Like I said, if India had played a match or two between the last ODI and the first Test, we could have won the second Test only. Yes! The conditions in the second Test were not great for batting and batsmen of both the teams struggled but after this win, we have to say what the people, who criticised the Indian team are saying,” he added.

In conclusion, Sunil Gavaskar admitted that he will be really happy if Virat Kohli breaks his record of most runs in a bilateral series in the next two games.

The fourth Test starts from August 30 at The Rose Bowl in Southampton.