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Former India spinner Murali Karthik accused KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant of complicating things for Shubman Gill during the first Test match against England at the Yorkshire Cricket Ground in Leeds, England. England defeated India by five wickets in the opening Test of the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy 2025 to take 1-0 lead in the five-Test match series.
Karthik said that multiple players giving instructions in the field, in addition to the captain, is never a good sign, which was what happened on Day 5 of the Headingley Test. He noted the number of instructions that senior players of the side like KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were giving after Prasidh Krishna picked up two wickets in the second session.
“At one point I felt there were too many captains,” said Kartik on Cricbuzz. “I just couldn’t understand that. KL Rahul was making hand movements, Rishabh Pant was also doing it, and so was Shubman Gill who is actually the man appointed as captain. I couldn’t understand those multiple hand signals. You wouldn’t want to complicate things. There is only one captain.”
“A senior player making slight changes here and there, correcting someone slightly when they feel they are slightly in the wrong position, sending third man or short fine, mid-on, mid-off; these are all fine occasionally. However, so many players taking calls so frequently is not a good sign.”
Team India are currently in Birmingham preparing for the second Test match, which will take place from 2 to 6 July at Edgbaston Stadium. There are reports that pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will miss the clash due to workload management. On the other hand, England included Jofra Archer in their squad for the second Test match.
England Men's Test squad for 2nd Test: Ben Stokes (capt), Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.
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