India's day of drift: Flat body language, flatter tactics at Old Trafford

Time of India

6 days ago

Mohammed Siraj reacts on Day 3 of the fourth Test between England and India at Old Trafford in Manchester. (AP)
TimesofIndia.com in Manchester:
The last half an hour of the second session aptly summed up India's Day 3 at Old Trafford cricket ground.
Jasprit Bumrah
and Mohammed Siraj were feeling some discomfort in their left ankle, Shubman Gill was forced to operate with Shardul Thakur - not Gill's choice as it was KL Rahul who handed over the ball to him when the captain was in the change room for a quick break - and Anshul Kamboj with the second new ball and the body language remained very flat.
Karun Nair and Abhimanyu Easwaran kept going in and out of the field as substitute fielders and the rest - Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Akash Deep - ensured that the drinks were loaded and chilled. In the middle of the hapless period, Arshdeep kept the
mahaul
(environment) light as he urged teammates to clap every time he returned from drinks duties. The
mahaul
, however, was anything but light in the middle as India put on a listless show with the ball and operated with questionable tactics throughout the day.
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From under-bowling Thakur, again, to waiting 68 overs before handing over the ball to Washington Sundar, captain Gill let the game slip away. Even Sundar's drift, which got India two quick wickets of Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, wasn't enough to turn momentum India's way as the rest remained very ordinary.
Bumrah ran in hard but his lines remained all over the place, Siraj was erratic & expensive, Anshul Kamboj was a royal disappointment on debut and Thakur wasn't considered.
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Undo
The only period of some control came when the two spinners bowled in tandem and while Ravindra Jadeja too failed to keep it tight, he was in good rhythm with Sundar in that period post the Lunch interval.
Joe Root was dismissed after scoring 150 runs on Day 3 of the fourth Test between England and India at Old Trafford in Manchester. (AP)
The visitors did delay taking the second new ball due to the control which spinners were enjoying but the moment it was taken in the 91st over and pace was introduced, run-making returned to fluent ways for the hosts who operated in comfortable fashion with the Ben Stokes-Joe Root stand.
The right-hander scored another hundred, went past Ricky Ponting's 13,378 Test runs and the Indian shoulders remained down.
On a day where there wasn't an overcast cloud in the sky and it remained bright and sunny, India's tactical blunders were exposed as they clearly didn't pick the right attack for the surface. Dry and placid, the 22 yards had some variable bounce on the first two days under clouds but evened out when it baked under the sun.
It was then just the case of exhibiting the right temperament and showing patience as enough runs were on offer.
India just didn't have the attack to even try a Plan B.
Ben Stokes remained unbeaten at close on Day 3 of the fourth Test between England and India at Old Trafford in Manchester. (AP)
It was another day of wondering what could have been had the guy wearing a bib - Kuldeep Yadav - was giving the oldish Dukes a rip. It's for days and situations like these that you needed some variation but India's obsession with depth and bits-and-pieces template exposed their trumpet of picking an attack to pick 20 wickets.
After the Leeds defeat, where they weren't able to defend 370, India swiftly packed their batting instead of adding a wicket-taking option with the ball.
The pitches have remained flat and dry in all four Tests so far but Kuldeep's bib is yet to come off. The preference to batting depth has compromised India's wicket-taking ability and it turned out to be a long day under the sun where the opposition milked runs for fun. When Gill and the rest dragged themselves to the change room, the body language was a true reflection of how the day unfolded for them.
The loud sledge from the stand near the stairs did catch a few players' attention but they were too tired to care at the moment.
Washington Sundar took two wickets on Day 3 of the fourth Test between England and India at Old Trafford in Manchester. (AP)
Head down, they called it a day and even Arshdeep's claps and infectious energy wasn't enough to give the shoulders a lift.
India: 358 trail England: 544/7
(Joe Root 150, Ben Duckett 94, Zak Crawley 84, Ben Stokes 77*; Washington Sundar 2/57, Ravindra Jadeja 2/117)
by 186 runs.
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