Ben Stokes-led England were in spot of bother at the end of Day 2, conceding 587 runs in the Indian first innings and then losing three wickets before Stumps. They spent over 150 grueling overs in the field as Indian captain Shubman Gill and the rest of his teammates put their bowlers to task. It meant that England’s top order batters had the unenviable task of facing the Indian bowlers towards the end of the day after having been on the field for nearly two full days. Former England captain Nasser Hussain has termed the England batsman looking a ‘bit frazzled’.
“I just think it shows what a tough game Test match cricket is mentally,” said Hussain on Sky Sports. “150 overs in the field. We’ve all been there on this very ground. It frazzled the brains of those top three or four and the shots they played where they were very smart. We were all applauding the way they played at Headingley in both innings but in particular the second innings in the run chase where it wasn’t a Bazzbally type of innings. It was a smart innings. I thought they looked a bit frazzled and all three shots if they looked at them, they would have said we could have done better.”
England had won the first Test at Headingley despite being behind for most of it. Stokes had won the toss and put India to bat first at the time and he did the same at Edgbaston. While India had three centuries in the first innings at Headingley before the team collapsed giving England a chance to comeback in the match, captain Shubman Gill’s masterful 269 and vital contributions from Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar made sure that India posted a truly massive first innings total at at Edgbaston.
When asked about the decision of Stokes to bowl first like he did at Headingley, Hussain shared that the ball has not done a lot at Edgbaston. “Well, you only win if you win. So they won the last game. He will say, ‘Well I told you so. It didn’t deteriorate that much. You can argue that India didn’t if they had taken their catches and been a bit more ruthless. And if (Ravindra) Jadeja had bowled a better line on the last day, the result wouldn’t have gone that way But they won the Test matche. So as a captain, you take that. Here I think it hasn’t done as much as they thought. It did for an hour, it did a bit for Chris Woakes when he was bowling at that far end. But it hasn’t done that much. Since lunchtime day one, it’s done very little. We saw the stats and we did a pitch report with Stuart Broad and It’s seam-less, it swung less, it’s bounced less, it’s been slower. It’s done nothing. So you cannot say that’s what you expected it to do,” Hussain added.
With England pacer Brydon Carse suffering tired feet on the second day of the Test, Hussain also talked about how such long innings take a toll on the bowlers and also put the batting unit under pressure. “And what have you say, oh we will have a chase and we will do it at the end of the game when the opposition, who have become more ruthless and their captain has gone to get a magnificent double hundred. Then you are and what it leads to is physical demand on the bowling attack. Because you have gone back to back now bowling first on flat pitches. So physically, you saw Carse’s (Brendon) pace drop off, Because his foot, his toes were hurting again. And then I go back to mentally that it takes strain on the batting lineup. Again they were on the field for a long period. So it does catch up with you if you go bowling first in two Test matches,” concluded Hussain.
