England was set a target of 368 and the hosts came to 259/3 at stumps on Day 4 with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow unbeaten on 76 and 72, respectively while it is okay to say that England is the favorite for the victory of the ongoing test match.
Before play began on Day 4 of the ongoing Edgbaston Test against England, it was India who was on top and they were hoping to set a big target for England.
However, some ‘ordinary’ shots achieved the excusals of Indian hitters, and the visitors were packaged out for 245 with just Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant going past the 50-run mark.
Eventually, England was set a target of 368 and the hosts came to 259/3 at stumps on Day 4 with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow unbeaten on 76 and 72, respectively.
It is okay to say that England is the favorite for the victory of the ongoing test match at Edgbaston. India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour spoke to reporters after stumps on Day 4 during a press conference and he termed the batting performances of his side as “ordinary”.
“I’ll agree that 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 really could’ve batted them out of the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. A lot of them got starts but really couldn’t convert. We were expecting one of them to play a big knock and have a big partnership but unfortunately, it didn’t happen like that,”
Rathour said.
“Two wickets in the morning early and again the game will open up. We know that we understand the game; it is a big target still. It’s still more than 100 runs. We take two wickets early and the game can still open up. The kind of bowling Shami and Bumrah are doing, it’s not beyond them that they get one wicket, then one, two, three can fall. And that can bring us back in the game,”
he added.
“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,”
said Rathour.
“Of course, at this level, you expect people to bowling short against us, and especially against the Indian team, people have been using the short ball for quite some time. People have their ways of handling that. As a batter, you have your way to deal with that. We don’t say you have to do this or do that. As a batter, you need to decide, according to your game, what suits you in that situation and those conditions. Unfortunately, today we couldn’t execute whatever plans we had,”
he added.
