 "Pathan calls for more 'aggressive bowling' from India at Headingley; Shastri feels Gill and Co missing Kohli's presence")
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan urged the Jasprit Bumrah-led attack to be more aggressive and use more bouncers with the first Test against England at Headingley quickly slipping out of their grasp.
India face the prospect of conceding the series lead to England despite scoring more than 800 runs in the game on the back of five centuries, with a fine century by Ben Duckett and his solid 188-run opening stand with Zak Crawley putting the home team in pole position to chase down the 371-run target set by the Indians.
“I want to see aggressive bowling with defensive field set from Team India. Don’t forget to use bouncers,” the former seam-bowling all-rounder wrote on X on Tuesday evening, at a time when England were racing towards the target in Leeds.
“5 bouncer of this inning created a chance. Should have been many more bouncers,” he added in a reply on the same thread.
5 bouncer of this inning created a chance. Should have been many more bouncers.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) June 24, 2025
India missing Kohli, feels Shastri
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri, meanwhile, felt the Shubman Gill-led team was missing Virat Kohli’s energetic presence on the field on the final day at Headingley, Leeds. Shastri, who was coach of the Indian team between 2017 and 2021 during Kohli’s peak years as captain across formats, added that the current Indian team needed someone to get in the face of the opposition and try and unsettle them.
“India need someone to do a Kohli. Should be someone designated. Kohli could do it for 3 people. Get in the face,” said Shastri, who is part of Sky Sports’ commentary panel for the ongoing series, on air.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsEngland resumed from their overnight score of 21/0 and had cruised to 117/0 at lunch. Duckett and Crawley were on the verge of taking their opening partnership past 200 when the latter was dismissed by seamer Prasidh Krishna, who also got rid of first innings centurion Ollie Pope shortly after.
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