Former England opener Sir Geoffrey Boycott criticized Yashasvi Jaiswal for dropping catches in the opening Test match against England at Leeds, Headingley. The visitors lost the opening Test by five wickets as they could not grab their chances in the field.
The tourists dropped a total of eight catches and it led to their downfall. Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a fine knock of 101 runs in his maiden innings on the English soil but he could not take his catches while fielding at gully.
Jaiswal dropped Harry Brook and Ollie Pope’s catches in the first innings and also dropped a difficult chance of Ben Duckett. Furthermore, the Indian opener fluffed Duckett’s catch in the second innings when he was on 97 and the left-hander went on to score 149 runs.
Pope’s catch was bungled by Jaiswal when he was on 62 and he scored 106 runs in the first innings. Ergo, Jaiswal’s fielding lapses proved costly for the team.
Geoffrey Boycott wrote in his column for the Telegraph, “The worst culprit was the young superstar batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal who shelled three catches. Everyone drops a catch but three in a match is too expensive. He made 105 runs in two innings but he cost India more than the runs he scored.”
Meanwhile, Siraj and Bumrah were right on the money in the first hour of the final day’s play but the duo could not take any wickets and Boycott said it hurt India.
Boycott added, “Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj gave everything in the morning session but just could not get any wickets. It hurt India that their best two bowlers did not take one wicket on the last day. On top of that the Indian catching was poor throughout the match and the ground fielding was sloppy as well.”
Boycott, who played 108 Test matches for England, slammed Prasidh Krishna for his mundane bowling. Krishna could not hit the right length and failed to deliver for the team.
Geoffrey concluded, “Prasidh Krishna was too short with no pace in the morning session on the final day. I put more energy into my golf game than he did his bowling. It was different in the afternoon when he bent his back a bit, pitched the ball up and found some zip and nip off the pitch surprising Crawley and Ollie Pope.”
The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.
