Former Indian cricketer Vijay Bharadwaj lashed out at Team India’s strategy in the second innings of the third Test match against England at Lord’s, which the visitors lost by 22 runs. India needed 193 runs to win but they found themselves under the cosh at 112-8 in the run-chase.
Ravindra Jadeja scored an unbeaten knock of 61 runs off 181 balls but his efforts in vain. Bharadwaj said the team’s think tank should have sent out a message to Jadeja to be more aggressive while batting with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.
While Bumrah survived for 54 balls, Siraj played 30 balls, but India suffered a crushing loss in the end.
“I think the approach was only wrong. How can Shubman Gill say we will leave Jadeja to make his game plan the way he wants? If he was doing it right then okay. He wasn’t picking runs and looking to win the game. How will you accept giving strike to Bumrah and Jadeja from the outside? With Bumrah and Siraj getting out and Jadeja remaining not out in the end, not at all accepted. There is no use. If the team does not win either 50 or 200, it doesn’t matter. Jadeja is batting well. In such a time, even if he went to score and got out we could have said fine its okay,” he said on Star Sports.
Bharadwaj said Jadeja’s sedate approach in the run-chase was wrong and he got the calculation wrong.
“It felt like he was playing for a draw. I feel the fabric, the way he played, and the approach itself was wrong. If someone as experienced as Jadeja was playing like this, someone from the outside at least could have told him. It is disappointing to come so close and lose a game that we should have won. There were 23-24 runs remaining, and at that time, Jadeja, batting at 60, did not think that the calculation was about the runs and not the overs,” he added.
This was Jadeja’s fourth consecutive fifty of the series and he would aim to carry the good show against the home team.
The fourth Test match between England and India will be played at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, from July 23 onwards.
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