 "The Indian team was guilty of wasting multiple opportunities during England's first innings in the first Test at Headingley. Reuters")
Former batter Aakash Chopra slammed the Shubman Gill-led Indian team for their poor fielding in the first Test against England in Headingley , allowing the home team to nearly cancel out their first innings total.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was guilty of dropping three catches while the likes of wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and senior spinner Ravindra Jadeja – a gun fielder – fluffed chances, allowing England to post 465 on the board. This was after India suffered a batting collapse, losing their last seven wickets for 41 runs to get bowled out for 471.
Harry Brook was a key beneficiary of the dropped chances; he was batting on nought when he was caught by Mohammed Siraj at midwicket off a no-ball by Jasprit Bumrah. He would go on to get two more reprieves before finally getting caught at deep backward square on 99 off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling.
‘Indian team has let themselves down massively’
“It sounds cliche - catches win matches - but it’s true. There are disciplinary things among which some things are in your hands. Holding catches is in your hands. Improving your fielding is in your hands,” ex-India opener Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“Fielding and overstepping, these are the things where you have to look within, and that is where I think the Indian team has let themselves down massively. They would be hurting because they dropped catches and bowled no-balls,” he added.
Despite the dropped chances, India managed to collect a slender six-run lead, thanks primarily to Jasprit Bumrah (5/83) collecting collecting his 14th Test five-for . Bumrah had accounted for all three English wickets that fell on the second day, and could have had more had the chances been taken.
Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj were also among the wickets even though they conceded more than a hundred runs, the latter going at over six-an-over for his 3/128.