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Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar wasn't very pleased with England's field setting during the third day of the Lord's Test. The Ben Stokes-led team deployed seven fielders on the leg side during the first session of Day 3 and even though they weren't bowling many bouncers, this act was quite similar to the infamous 'bodyline' tactics that was used by the Three Lions against Australia back in the 1932-33 Ashes.
These tactics were used by the hosts to mount pressure on the duo of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, who were piling on runs and were looking in great touch during that time. Gavaskar didn't only slam the hosts were using those tactics, but also asked the ICC Men's Cricket Committee head, Sourav Ganguly to take appropriate measures.
Gavaskar also sent a big message to Ganguly
"That is not cricket at all. Sourav Ganguly, the ICC cricket committee's head, is listening to this, please ensure ext time it's six fieldrs on the leg side," Gavaskar said while commentating.
Meanwhile, Pant lost his wicket due to a run-out right before the end of the first session. The wicketkeeper-batter departed back to the pavilion after playing a great knock of 74 runs from 112 deliveries. Though he did play a fine inning, many would have expected him to reach his hundred from that stage, however that didn't end up happening thanks to a brilliant run-out from Stokes.
On the other hand, Rahul would eventually go on to get to his century as the second session commenced, but he wasn't able to go quite far from there and got dismissed for 100 runs by spinner Shoaib Bashir. This wicket restricted the visitors to 254/5 and it left the duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy at the crease.
The Men in Blue are still over 100 runs behind England's first-inning total of 387 and will be hoping Jadeja and Reddy to form a big partnership so that they can manage to move into the lead before the Three Lions' second innings.
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