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