IND vs ENG: 'This Should Hurt India' - Former Indian Pacer's Scathing Comment After Edgbaston Loss

In the second innings of the rescheduled Edgbaston Test, India was defeated by England by seven wickets thanks in large part to the outstanding batting performances of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. Former cricketers Virender Sehwag and Ravi Shastri criticized away team’s strategy in the second innings. 

India’s second-inning collapse to 245 all out gave England a historically high 378 runs winning target. Except for Rishabh Pant (57), who scored the first inning’s centurion, and Cheteshwar Pujara (66), none of the other batters made it past England’s fearsome bowling attack.

Bowling In The Fourth Innings Was About Listless: Virender Sehwag

After picking up where they left off on Day 4, at 259/3, Root (142 not out off 173 balls) and Bairstow (114 not out off 145 balls) scored the necessary 119 runs in an hour and a half to square the Pataudi Trophy series at 2-2 and prevent visitors from winning their first series in England since 2007. 

Former cricketer Virender Sehwag stated that following the defeat, India needs to reflect and solve a number of concerns, especially bowling. 

“India have quite a few issues to address, only Pujara & Pant from the top 6 scoring runs and Jadeja batting brilliantly, but need batsman to be in form,” Sehwag tweeted. 

“Bowling in the fourth innings was absolutely listless,” the former opening batsman said. 

“Special win by England to level the series. Joe Root & Jonny Bairstow have been in sublime form and made batting look very easy,” batting great Sachin Tendulkar wrote on Twitter. “Congratulations to England on a convincing victory.” 

Former fast bowler Irfan Pathan tweeted, “This victory of team England should hurt Team India. That was too easy.” 

Ravi Shastri Criticizes Indian Batting

Indian batters were criticized by Ravi Shastri, the team’s previous coach before Rahul Dravid took over, for their defensive strategy in the second innings. 

“They needed to bat two sessions and I thought they were defensive, they were timid today, especially after lunch,” Shastri said after India finished their second innings on Monday. 

“Even after they had lost those wickets, they could have taken some chances. Runs were important at that stage of the game and I thought they just went into a shell, lost those wickets too quickly, and gave enough time for England to bat today.” 

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