“Younger Players Were A Little Careless”: Ex-India Selector On Reason Behind Edgbaston Loss Against England

Indian cricket team suffered a demoralising loss to England in the fifth rescheduled Test in Edgbaston. Despite setting a huge target of 378 for England in the fourth innings, they could not defend it. While players like Rishabh Pant and Cheteshwar Pujara played well, the performances of players like Shubmann Gill, Shreyas Iyer among others left a lot to be desired. Former Indian cricket team player and ex-BCCI selector Jatin Paranjape delved into the areas where India fell short in the loss.

“There were two or three pieces in the game where India should have done better. In Test matches, third innings are very important and I thought India were diffident and timid in their third innings. They should have come out with more purpose. I think it falls upon the younger players to stand up and be counted in such times. A lot of the youngsters have got many chances. These are the times to really grind it out play half a session, a full session, try and think like a captain when you are at the crease,” the former India player and selector told senior sports journalist Jamie Alter in an interview on Glance.

“These are opportunities for them to really digest what the opportunity areas in front of them are and learn from it. Third innings are very tense, very crucial in a match like this and that is where I think England turned it around with Anderson getting Gill. That was a big wicket, the turning point of the game. The way Gill was batting in the first innings, if he had batted like that for 45 minutes, he would have scored 40 runs so imagine India 50 for no loss … it would have been a different ball game.

“I daresay a couple of the younger players were a little careless in their approach and that to me is a bit worrying. It could be one of two things: either you want to play that and way and feel that is the best way to express yourself, or you don’t get the gravity of a certain situation. The latter is very, very dangerous. This clarity is what Rahul [Dravid] and Vikram Rathour would try and establish very quickly with the younger players.”

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In the fifth Test,  Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, who have made chasing tricky targets in Test matches fashionable, put the famed Indian pace attack to sword with imposing hundreds as England recorded their highest ever chase of 378 runs with minimum fuss to level the five-match series 2-2. It is the fourth straight successful chase for England, having breached tricky fourth innings targets of 278, 299 and 296 against New Zealand in the previous series.

When England were rattled on the fourth afternoon by stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah, the two star batters didn’t waver from their game plan. The entire Indian attack, except Bumrah, looked pedestrian. All England needed was just under 20 overs to knock off the remaining 119 runs on the fifth day morning.