3rd Test: 7 wickets falling in 54 minutes hard to take by any stretch of imagination, says Sunil Gavaskar

Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was furious after the national team lost seven wickets in 54 minutes, on Day 4 in the second innings of the third Test against England. The visitors suffered a defeat by an innings and 76 runs, with the dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara in the opening few overs of the day’s play proving quite critical in determining the final proceedings. Pujara did not add to his overnight total of 91 runs on Day 4, with the rest of the batsmen failing to make their presence felt.

“We did have some rear guard action at Lord’s, when I think England lost the plot more than anything else. Once those top three wickets fell, it was clear they were not going to be able to survive for too long. But yes, for seven wickets to fall in 54 minutes is, by any stretch of imagination, a little hard to take,” said Gavaskar on Sony after the match.

“Team India did not respond well”

Team India skipper Virat Kohli was critical of the gameplay by his side, terming the pressure from English bowlers as “brilliant”.

“It’s down to scoreboard pressure. We knew we were up against it when we were out for 80 and the opposition put up a big score. We put up crucial partnerships and saw the day through, but the pressure from the English bowlers was brilliant this morning and we didn’t respond well,” said Kohli as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“Batting collapses can happen in this country, the pitch was good to bat on, but their discipline with the ball forced us to make a few mistakes, and it was difficult to deal with spells where we weren’t getting runs. We didn’t make good decisions as a batting side. The pitch looked good to bat on, and when England batted it hadn’t changed much, so they had a lot more intent with the bat, made better decisions. They were the deserving side to win to be honest,” he added.

“Playing another spinner would depend on the pitch”

The Team India skipper believes it is important for the top-order batsmen to step up and get the job done, rather than being reliant on the lower-order to step up.

“You could say that we don’t have enough batting depth, but the top order has to give enough runs to the lower middle order to step up. The lower order can’t bail the team out all the time. We don’t have much other than the batting in the second innings to take from this game in terms of positives. Playing another spinner would depend on the pitch and we’ll take a call later,” he stated.

“It depends on the moisture and how it will hold up for the five days. The pressure from the fourth seamer is important sometimes and sometimes we have to make sure taking only three seamers means that the spinners have to come in quickly. We need to correct our flaws quickly and we’ve done this before, and we look forward to the Oval Test,” concluded Kohli.