One of the major talking points of the first Test betweeen India and England at Headingley has so far been the Men in Blue's abysmal fielding performance. The visitors dropped a total of six catches during England's first innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal putting down four of them. The other two catches were dropped by Ravindra Jadeja and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
One of the main reasons why England were able to put up the mammoth total of 465 was due to India's poor fielding display. Following the end of the third day of the Headingley Test, former India cricketer Ravi Shastri claimed that if the visitors hadn't dropped so many catches, they would have a lead of over 150 runs.
"I think India will be disappointed, too. England have pulled things back and this game is now on an even keel. This pitch is still good so England will fancy their chances of chasing and India know they have got to bat the day tomorrow," Shastri said as quoted by India Today.
"They have got to get past 300 and put England under pressure. Had they held their catches, they should have had a lead of 150-plus. There is a lot of time left in this Test match and the game is even," he added.
Broad also criticized the Indian team for their poor fielding
Legendary England pacer Stuart Broad echoed Shastri's words and stated that Shubman Gill & Co. cannot afford to put so many catches down if they have to take all the 10 wickets in an inning.
"I don't want to look too far ahead in this Indian batting lineup, but anything over 300 with Jasprit Bumrah in your bowling attack, I think you'd really fancy it. But, crucially, and I mean this in the kindest possible way, they have to take their catches. They can't lob three or four of them on the floor when you're trying to get 10 wickets to take a test match," Broad said on JioHotstar.
India dropped the catches of three of England's top-scorers in Ben Duckett (62), Ollie Pope (106) and Harry Brook (99). Due to this, the hosts ended up almost equaling the visitors' enormous first-inning total of 471, but fell just six runs short of the mark with Jasprit Bumrah picking up an exceptional five-wicket haul.