India Batting Coach Vikram Rathour, Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal
India Batting Coach Vikram Rathour (Image Credit: Twitter)

Team India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour rued the fact that the Indian batters completely fumbled a chance to bat England out of the game and are now staring down the barrel at the end of Day 4.

After taking a 132-run lead in the first innings, India had helped themselves to 125/3. However, the fourth day’s play saw the batters throw away their wickets and India eventually set a total of 378.

I’ll agree we had a pretty ordinary day as far as batting is concerned. We were ahead in the game. We were in a position where we could have batted them out of the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”

ENG vs IND: We Were In A Position Where We Could Have Batted Them Out Of The Game - Batting Coach Vikram Rathour
Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant. PC- Getty

A lot of them got starts but really couldn’t convert those starts. We were expecting one of them to play a big knock and have a big partnership, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen,” Rathour said in the press conference.

“We could’ve handled it slightly differently” – Vikram Rathour

Rathour also said that they needed to deal with the short-ball ploy much better. Several Indian players including Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur fell tamely to the bouncer.

Yes, they used a short-ball plan against us in the field. We had to show a little better, not intent, but strategy. We could’ve handled it slightly differently. People tried to play shots but didn’t really convert or execute them well enough.

Ben Stokes-Virat Kohli
Photo Credit: (Twitter)

They got out to that. We will have to rethink how we handle that next time in a similar situation, against similar bowlers who keep similar fields. We will need to have a better strategy against them,” he also added.

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England is in a comfortable position at 259/3 and looks set to chase down the target on Day 5.

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