India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour believes they had a pretty ordinary day as far as the batting is concerned on the fourth day’s play against England in the fifth Test match at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Monday. India was in a commanding position at 125-3 at the end of day’s three play and they had a huge lead of 257 runs.
However, they failed to build on the same and they were skittled out for 245 runs and gave a target of 378 runs to England. India lost four wickets in the opening session and England bowlers then did a good job in wiping out the tail quickly in the post-lunch session.
Cheteshwar Pujara scored 66 runs whereas Rishabh Pant added 57 runs but apart from these two none of the batters could get going. Shreyas Iyer was tested with short deliveries and he was dismissed after played a poor shot.
Ravindra Jadeja scored a patient knock of 22 runs but he was running out of partners in the end. Furthermore, Shardul Thakur once again failed to contribute with the bat in the second innings.
There is no doubt that India could have got a lead of 450 runs had they batted more sensibly but they could only add 120 runs on the penultimate day.
“I’ll agree we had a pretty ordinary day as far as batting is concerned,” Rathour said in the press conference.
“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.”
On the other hand, England is in dominating position as they need another 119 runs to win and have seven wickets in hand. Zak Crawley and Alex Lees added 107 runs for the opening alliance to give a perfect platform to the team whereas Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow continued their sublime form. Root was unbeaten on 76 and Bairstow was on 72 at the end of the day’s play and the hosts are on the cusp of a historic win.
If England goes on to get another 119 runs, then it will be their’s highest chase in Test cricket.
