Former England opener Nick Knight shared his disappointment that the visitors’ gifted away their wickets to Kuldeep Yadav before lunch was taken on the opening day of the fifth Test against India at Dharamsala on Thursday. Yadav accounted for Ben Duckett when the left-hander tried to play a big shot but holed out to Shubman Gill, who took a sharp catch while running back.
Subsequently, the left-arm wrist spinner bamboozled England’s vice-captain Ollie Pope, who tried to get to the pitch of the ball but could not read Yadav’s googly. Indian wicket-keeper bat Dhruv Jurel also deserves credit for the wicket as he told Kuldeep that Pope could get out of his crease before the bowler bowled.
Knight feels Duckett could have played straighter rather than across the line.
Speaking to Jio Cinema, Nick Knight said, “I mean, I thought Ben Duckett played really well, sort of absorbed the pressure. The ball was moving laterally in the air, not so much of the pitch. I just thought maybe he could have been down the ground a little straighter and not a bit across the line, just gifted Kuldeep a couple of wickets there.”
Knight reckons England should have smartly played out Kuldeep Yadav as the hosts didn’t have a third seamer in the playing XI as the pitch was assisting the seamers in the first hour of play.
The former left-hander added, “I thought they knuckled down. I thought they played the situation perfectly in the first half an hour. Then into the next hour. India don’t have a third seamer, it was going to be Ashwin after that.
“And then it was a case of whether they consider keep their foot on the gas and the throttle and keep pushing home and getting a position of real strength. And they weren’t able to do that.”
Kuldeep registered his fourth five-wicket haul in Test cricket, returning with 5-72 and playing a key role in skittling out England at 218 after Ben Stokes won the toss and decided to bat first.
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