India's Day 5 performances are truly amazing like the Australian team of the past era: Steve Harmison

Former England fast bowler Steve Harmison was effusive in praise of team India’s day five performances against England and compared it to the golden generation of the Australian teams led by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. The visitors yet again displayed a chanceless performance on the final day of the Test and shot England out for just 210 to win by a margin of 157 runs.

In the second Test at Lord’s, India showed enough character on day five after being down and out one stage to script a come from behind epic win by a margin of 151 runs. Also, different players have stepped up at various stages, which has allowed Kohli to experiment throughout the four Tests. India has also displayed a tremendous amount of skills to bounce back from adverse situations, which Harmison felt is phenomenal to have.

“In the pressure situations that India find themselves on day five, they keep going, and they keep asking questions of the opposition. Sometimes on day five, you are tired, and when you play constantly under that sort of pressure with what Indian players do in IPL and stuff like that, then all of a sudden, you can break a team down,” Steve Harmison told ESPNCricinfo.

The ability to break the team down on day five is superb of team India: Steve Harmison

Harmison further opined that the Australian team had this tremendous ability to break the team down on day five. Their constant pressure puts the other team down, which the current Indian team possesses.

“The great Australian side, me and VVS (Laxman) played against, they broke you down on Day 5. That’s when their skills levels came out and they won the game then. I think this Indian team is turning into that. They break teams down, get them to a point of submission. Because they are so used to bowling under pressure, then their skill sets come out in the end,” Harmison added.

On the other hand, the former England pacer felt that constant fighting of places in the team is not helping England’s cause when they are dealing with tense situations. “Even in the back end of their first innings, is somebody took some responsibility to go and score a hundred, really understand the situation and ram in advantage, England would have been ahead. Apart from Joe Root or James Anderson with the ball, I don’t think there is anybody who really understands the situation and believes in the situation of the match because they are just fighting for their careers.”

“They are just trying to cement their place in a stop-start career. Everybody who is playing for England at this time can’t really look in the mirror and say, ‘I own this shirt and this place in this team.’ That for me is a concern moving ahead,” he said.