Sanjay Bangar unhappy with Hardik Pandya and Ravi Ashwin throwing their wickets away

India are currently in a decent position in their fourth Test against England at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton, mostly because of Cheteshwar Pujara’s masterful century. However, at one point in time, they found themselves in a rabbit hole owing to a flurry of wickets in the middle-orders. From 142/2 in 41 overs, the visiting team was reduced to 195/8 in a space of nearly 19 overs.

All-rounder Moeen Ali, who is playing his first contest of the series, effortlessly ran through the Indian line-up with a five-wicket haul. From the visiting team’s perspective, some of their batsmen perished to poor strokes. Hardik Pandya tried to work the ball on the leg side without getting to the pitch of the leather. Joe Root, the English captain, grasped a rather dolly of a catch.

We thought two dismissals were pretty soft

A couple of overs later, Ravichandran Ashwin, one of India’s reliable batters, attempted to play a reverse sweep, which went horribly wrong. He exposed the stumps and the red cherry snuck through to clatter into the timber. Meanwhile, Sanjay Bangar, India’s batting coach, didn’t mince any words in saying that the dismissals could’ve been avoided.

“We thought two dismissals were pretty soft. Hardik really wasn’t on top of the ball while driving and Ashwin attempted a reverse sweep at a pretty early stage in his innings. If he was set and batting with the tail, one could have thought that shot was on,” Bangar was quoted as saying in Times Now.

After having bowled the Three Lions out for 246 runs, India put 273 on the board. Most importantly, they garnered a crucial lead of 27 runs. In the meantime, the Brits would be happy for the reason that Keaton Jennings and Alastair Cook played out the last four overs of the second day without any hiccup.

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