Sunil Gavaskar warns the Indian batsmen ahead of the fourth day's play in Southampton

The fourth Test between England and India has reached an interesting juncture. At the close of play on day 3, England were ahead of India by 233 runs and still have two wickets left. They would be looking to push the lead as much as possible to give themselves a good chance. The Indian batsmen, who have shown some great intent in the last three innings, would be confident of chasing the target down.

However, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has sent a warning to the team ahead of the fourth day. The 69-year old stated that it will not be an easy task to bat on the fourth day. The pitch at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton has got some rough patches on it which should assist the likes of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.

Also, the pitch at has shown inconsistent bounce on the third day. Bearing these in mind, Gavaskar felt that it would test the technique of the batsmen on the final two days.

Sunil Gavaskar heaps praise on the Indian bowling attack

The former Indian skipper seemed to be mighty impressed with India’s bowling in this match. He felt that Jasprit Bumrah bowled brilliantly and posed a great threat to the batsmen. “India’s seam bowlers have been quite outstanding, with Bumrah leading the pack. He has bowled with pace and got the ball to move considerably and has been a threat just about every ball.

Ishant has been steady without looking as dangerous as he did in the first couple of Tests. Mohammad Shami has blown hot and cold but has been unlucky too, as he has gone past the outside edge often. They gave India the upper hand on Day One after England won the toss and batted and here again they have given India a chance to level the series,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for The Times of India (TOI).

Talking about batting in the fourth innings, the former opener wrote, “India knew that they did not want to chase more than 150 to 200 in the second innings for it is not going to be easy batting in the fourth innings.”

Sunil also questioned the batsmen’s technique after 20 wickets fell on the first two days. “With 20 wickets falling on the first two days, it would appear that there’s a devil in the pitch. While the ball has certainly moved a lot, it’s mainly ordinary technique and head positioning that has led to the batsmen’s downfall.

India will be more concerned that Moeen Ali took five wickets on a pitch which didn’t help spin at all,” he concluded.

[interaction id=”5b88fa22b2f50808effc984d”]

For more news and developments, stay tuned on CricTracker.com.