Former India captain Kapil Dev has criticised the team for dropping catches that allowed England’s batsmen to take control of the third Test in Southampton.
As a result, India lost by 266 runs, squandering their lead in the five-match series that now stands at 1-1. The visitors had won the second Test at lord’s by 95 runs after the first Test in Nottingham was drawn. The fourth Test begins in Manchester on Thursday, August 7.
The likes of Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, struggling for form, scored runs finally as did debutant Jos Buttler and in-form Gary Ballance, all of them taking advantages of chances missed by India in both the English innings.
Perhaps the key moment was when Cook, on 15*, was dropped by Ravindra Jadeja in the first innings, the bowler missing out was debutant Pankaj Singh, who then went for not so impressive figures of 0-179 in the Test.
“Poor chap (referring to Pankaj). He was bowling first-time in international cricket. On a flat wicket like this, he bowls well enough to take the edge and you drop it. Then he doesn’t get a wicket in the whole match. He bowled well in the Test, but poor chap!” Kapil remarked about the luck-less debutant.
“There is no easy fix for this,” he added, referring to the catches-dropped in the slip-cordon that is almost becoming a trend with the Indian team.
“You just have to keep practising, because you cannot take 20 wickets if you keep dropping catches. It becomes very difficult for bowlers. We were good in this department at lord’s. But in Southampton there were quite a few drops and on pitches like these, for our bowlers there’s not much. So you cannot let these chances go away.”
England went on to score 569/7 before declaring their first innings, and from there onwards, exerted pressure on the Indians throughout thereby not letting the opposition win even a single session in the match. “It was a similar wicket to the one at Nottingham and just look at the difference in bowling from there to here. Overall, the bowling could’ve done better.
“There were just too many loose deliveries and England played well enough to make them count. When the other team goes on to score nearly 600 runs, it shows that you’ve a lack of discipline in your bowling,” said Kapil Dev.
When asked if this was potentially because of fatigue induced by playing back-to-back Tests, he replied,”This is Test cricket. This is international cricket. You cannot talk about fatigue. The difference is that one team plays well and the other team plays badly, we must accept that. “At lord’s, India should’ve been bowled out for 160 but they nearly got 300 runs. So, England lost. Similarly, India bowled badly and lost in Southampton.”
Finn replaces Plunkett for 4th Test
England fast bowler Steven Finn has replaced injured liam Plunkett for the fourth Test. Plunkett, who picked 3 wickets in the first drawn Test and scalped 4 during England’s loss at lord’s apart from a half-century, opted out of the third Test as well due to an injured ankle. “liam Plunkett experienced some left ankle discomfort at the end of the second Test and will miss the fourth Test,” the ECB said in a statement.