Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik was left extremely disappointed with the bowling display of Akash Deep during the fifth Test against England. India's pace-trio of Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj weren't able to put in good performances as the England batters completely dominated with both Joe Root and Harry Brook scoring fantastic centuries.
Karthik pointed out that India's poor display with both the ball andf in the field saw England take over the match. Though Akash had given decent bowling performances previously in the series, he failed to deliver when his side needed it the most and finished the fourth day with figures of 1/85 in his 20-over spell.
“For a start, I think Akash Deep could have bowled much better. I don’t think he really bowled as well as his talents suggests, because what he showed in Edgbaston was high quality. But then he kind of tapered off, I don’t know why. He bowled a lot down the leg, I’m not sure why he hasn’t had a good couple of games,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
Karthik was also critical of Siraj
Karthik also didn't show any mercy to Siraj, who had failed to complete a crucial catch of Harry Brook, providing the England batter with a massive lifeline. Brook was on 19 when he attempted to hit a six off Krishna's delivery. It looked like Siraj would easily complete the catch, however his foot ended up hitting the boundary rope which meant that instead of getting a wicket, India conceded six runs.
“Siraj and Prasidh bowled their hearts out, no doubt about it. A very seminal moment in this game came when Siraj dropped that catch. He had just walked into the ground before the start of that over, the masseuse was standing behind him, Arshdeep was just in his corner, maybe he was just chilling, was not expecting anything of that sort to come to him. After that, you can almost see that the Indian team deflated a little,” Karthik stated.
“He did not judge the ball well enough, when you are running behind for a catch, the most important aspect is that you need to quickly get under the ball, and then have a wide base to keep your head still. What Siraj was doing is that he had a bit of a shorter step, so he was moving away as he took the catch, which tells you he did not judge the ball well enough.” he added.
Meanwhile, England will be requiring 35 runs to win the fifth and final Test of the series against India. They finished the fourth day on 339/6 after play was called off during the third session due to bad light. On the other hand, India have the mountain task in hand of taking England's remaining wickets while not letting them score the remaining runs.