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Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels that England won't be able to bat with their aggressive 'Bazball' approach on the fourth day of the Lord's Test. Instead, according to him, the hosts will continue with normal Test batting for the whole day. Notably, the Three Lions haven't been able to use the Bazball approach freely in the first three Tests of the series against India.
Manjrekar also predicted for the match to end in a draw and added that the result will only change if some batters would take on the bowlers and dominate against them.
Manjrekar believes that the match will end in a draw
"I can't see England on Day 4 playing Bazball. It's not a pitch to play Bazball because the only way to get power into shots is stepping out to spinners and hitting them for a six, and fast bowlers alike. So, I see England playing normally unless somebody is in the mood to take the bowlers on. So, unless something dramatic happens, you know where this match is heading in all probability. A Draw," Manjrekar said in a conversation with ESPNcricinfo.
The former India batter also criticized the England bowlers and stated that he was 'disappointed' with how they performed especially during the first session of Day 3. The hosts got dominated during the opening session thanks to the brilliant 141-run stand between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. Though both of the batters were dismissed by the start of the second session, the Men in Blue's lower middle-order also frustrated the Three Lions a lot and managed to take the visitors' total to 387, which was exactly the same as England's first-inning total.
"That was something that really disappointed me in that you want to see some kind of excellence at the Test level and there was absolutely nothing there. It was pretty mediocre the way England carried themselves in the first session because that was a great opportunity to start off well. Just seemed like there was no intent, and the bowling looked insipid. Jofra Archer was disappointing and even when he was bowling, there was no drama created. It was strangely very, very dull from England," Manjrekar added.
Meanwhile, the final over of the third day also caused a lot of drama and included of a heated exchange between Shubman Gill and Zak Crawley. The India captain accused the England batter of time-wasting after he pulled out four times before facing Jasprit Bumrah's third delivery of the over. Things got even more heated after the fourth delivery of the over hit Crawley on the glove and he called in the physio. Following this, the Indian players once again started to taunt the batter and Gill also had a verbal exchange with Crawley's opening partner Ben Duckett. It remains to be seen if more drama will be caused on the field on the much-anticipated fourth day of Lord's Test.
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