England’s performance was quite outstanding: Sunil Gavaskar

Former legendary Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar applauded the effort of the English bowlers on the 4th day of the 2nd Test and said the day belonged to the visitors. Gavaskar who is part of the commentary panel credited Stuart Broad for India’s downfall. Broad kept on persisting with his nagging line and length and eventually finished with figures of 4/33. From an overnight score of 98/3, the hosts collapsed to 204 to set England an improbable victory target of 405 in their 2nd essay.

“England’s performance was quite outstanding, especially Stuart Broad who had a strained tendon in his leg. He bowled with a great heart. The ball was holding up today because of the pitch and some good bowling from England led to India’s collapse,” Gavaskar told NDTV following the end of the day’s play.

Day 4 completely belonged to England apart from the two wickets they lost at the close of play. They showed great determination and credit to their bowlers to bowl India out.

At the score of 162/9, India looked to get bowled out under 200 but some late hitting by Mohammed Shami and composed batting by Jayant Yadav propelled their score to 204.

“India could have been bowled out earlier but some heavy hitting by Mohammed Shami and smart cricket by Jayant Yadav took the target beyond the 400-run mark which is always a psychological advantage,” said the former India captain.

England finished Day 4 on 87/2, still, 318 runs adrift of India’s target. With both Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja coming into their groove it will be a testing time for the English batsmen when they come out to bat on the 5th day.

“There would be a lot of more purchase for spinners on Day 5. England bat deep but some of their batsmen you can’t rely on. Whether they send in Ben Stokes ahead of Ben Duckett will be interesting to see,” said Gavaskar.

Also read – England players await daily allowances from BCCI

Gavaskar was not happy with Kohli’s defensive approach as he believed the Indian skipper should have been more attacking with more than 400 runs on the bag.

“Today Kohli could have done a little bit better with 400 runs in the bag. He could have tried something else. Saving runs is not the important thing right now. You have to keep close-in fielders and attack,” concluded Gavaskar.