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Former England cricketer Naseer Hussain questioned why skipper Ben Stokes adopted a defensive approach against India during the fourth day of the Headingley Test. Hussain feels that England were overly defensive against India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant and didn't try to put him under pressure.
Notably, Pant scored centuries in both the innings of the Test, becoming the first Indian wicketkeeper-batter to do so and the second wicketkeeper-batter in history to achieve the rare feat behind former Zimbabwe cricketer Andy Flower.
“What I didn’t like was the phase early in Pant’s innings, when he was cross with himself, and England allowed him to knock the ball into a gap and walk down the other end. It’s an odd thing to say about a player who has scored as many runs as Pant, but that’s when you want to keep him on strike, because that is the best time to get him out. A team can take advantage when he’s getting frustrated with himself, because after four or five dots, he might try to do something stupid. Instead, he was calming down at the non-striker’s end," Hussain wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
Hussain also raised questions over Stokes' approach against KL Rahul
He further questioned why Stokes removed the slips and put the fielders back while KL Rahul was batting and also stated what the England captain should have done in that situation.
“India’s other second-innings centurion, KL Rahul, batted at the same tempo throughout the day, but Stokes’s tactics were motivated by Pant’s idiosyncrasies. He removed his slips and put fielders back. It was one of the few times that I have seen Stokes go defensive. As I say, he did so because he clearly felt that he was more likely to get Pant caught in the deep… What Stokes could have done, as he often has — especially when captaining spin in Asia — was set in-out fields. That would have provided him with men round the bat — prime real estate for Test cricket in Leeds — but also fielders in the deep," Hussain added.
Coming to the match, centuries from both Rahul and Pant had gotten India into a commanding position in the match at one stage during Day 4. Their lead had stretched close to the 300-run mark on the loss of just four wickets and it looked like they would give the hosts a target close to 500. However, the Men in Blue ended up suffering a batting collapse which saw them lose their last six wickets for just 31 runs.
England pacers Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse both took three wickets each as India got bowled out for 364 in their second innings, setting up a target of 371 for the Three Lions. Openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett came out to bat for six overs during the final session and mustered up 21 runs to leave the hosts requiring 350 runs on the fifth day of the Test. The match is very evenly poised and could end up going either way.
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