After the Indian cricket team lost the third Test at Lord’s against England by 22 runs to trail 1-2 in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, there will be plenty of time to evaluate what the visitors could have done better since there is eight-day gap till the fourth Test starts. For the Indian team, there will be a heavy sense of ‘what if’ in the air, after the narrow margin of defeat on the final day.
There is one aspect of the series that might merit a deeper look for the Indians: their proclivity to lose wickets in bunches and that too right before a session break is on the horizon. As former England star Michael Vaughan joked: the Indian team might love the food in England because they tend to lose wickets in a cluster right before lunch breaks. Vaughan said that India, with the batting depth they had in their ranks, should have chased the 193-run target in the third Test.
“They obviously like the food here. The thing about the lunches is that they can have them if they’re obviously dismissed,” joked Vaughan before telling Dinesh Karthik in a chat for Cricbuzz: “That’s just (loss of) concentration. You’ve played enough cricket to understand that. The more you think about batting differently towards the end of a session, the more you’re probably going to get out. You’ve just got to naturally play. Just naturally play. That’s just a mentality thing that this team has to get better at. I guess the inexperience of the group; They’re an inexperienced group.”
Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah in action against England during the Lord’s Test. (PTI)
He added: “Gill will be slightly concerned about that collapse, the first innings collapse down the back end, the little collapse last night and then another three quick wickets this morning. You don’t win many Test matches when you lose so many wickets in clusters. That’s something that India can’t afford in the last two games.”
As Dinesh Karthik noted, the Indians were also losing wickets right before heading into session breaks and gave the examples of Nitish Reddy and Jasprit Bumrah, who were dismissed right before a break.
As Cricbuzz noted, in the Headingly Test, India lost the wickets of KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan (on Day 1) and then losing Shubman Gill, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur’s wickets on day 2. At Edgbaston, India lost Karun Nair and Jadeja’s wickets at inopportune moments. And then in the third Test at Lord’s, India saw Pant depart on Day 3 and Reddy and Bumrah’s scalps on day 5.
Vaughan added that despite his captaincy facing a challenge of being 1-2 down, India skipper Gill would find solace in the fight the young team has shown.
