'Both India and England will consider themselves lucky' - Zaheer Khan after rain ruined 5th day's play in Nottingham

The first Test match between England and India resulted in a draw as the rain did not allow the play on the final day. The former India pacer Zaheer Khan said that India was the favorite to win the Test and they would have gained confidence from their performance. He pointed that both the teams will consider each other lucky to end the match with a draw.

On the final day of the Test, India required 157 runs to win and had nine wickets in hand. After bundling out the hosts for 303 in their second innings, the visitors looked in a dominating position. Though India had a lot of belief and depth in their batting line-up, Zaheer believes that the Joe Root-led side too would have believed that they had the attack to turn things around.

He also asserted that both the teams will now look at the positives and learnings from the game. “The shorter the game time, the better it would have been for England because of the conditions, required run-rate, and an opportunity to set attacking fields. But all you can do right now is look at the positives and what learnings you can take from here.

“Both dressing rooms will be in that kind of mood and perhaps Indian chats will be about how England got a bit lucky because of the rain while the English dressing room will say they had the bowling ability to win the game,” Zaheer Khan said in an interaction with Cricbuzz.

Zaheer Khan on having reserve day for all Tests

The England-India series was a highly anticipated contest but rain played its part as the first Test resulted in a draw. The cricket onlookers always hope for a result and a reserve day in such scenarios is what comes to the fore for discussion. Zaheer Khan thus opened up about having a reserved day for every Test match. He asserted that it is a good thought if a result is possible but one needs to stick to the current rules.

“It’s a good thought. If the result is possible then you can think about it. But wasn’t there another topic being discussed that 5-day Tests should be reduced to four? (chuckles) Rules keep changing. At the moment, we can just stick to the rules we have. When there are such games then one always longs for that extra day but if one’s team was lagging behind the match then they would have probably been happier without a reserve day,” Zaheer added.