VVS Laxman upset with KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan’s shot selection

The Indian openers walking out to bat in the first session of day 2, had a simple task, see through the new ball and then enjoy batting as the pitch was expected to play really good under the sun. Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan a pair that mixes caution and aggression perfectly negotiated the first burst from James Anderson and Stuart Broad. They had a fifty­-run partnership and things looked pretty easy.

However, while the English team was trying to convince the umpires to change the ball Sam Curran bowling as the first change made the Dukes ball move around. The left-arm seamer got it to shape back into the right-handers and suddenly things were happening. He hit Vijay on the pads and had to review it to get the decision in his favour. Thereafter the floodgates just opened. In the same spell, he dismissed Dhawan and India’s new No.3 KL Rahul.

Vijay scored 20 runs after batting 45 balls with four fours but failed to judge the movement on that ball, Dhawan had just got a hang of driving and despite being dropped in the slip cordon continued to do that. He edged one more and was caught this time. The left-hander departed for 26 from 46 balls and hit three boundaries during his stay.

Poor shot selection from Rahul

Rahul walked in got a four and played an expansive drive on the second delivery. It was shaping back into him and took the bottom edge of his bat to deflect back onto his stumps. His leg-stump was off the ground and suddenly England had a grand opening.

Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman is disappointed that the openers got the start but failed to capitalize it after all the hard work. He specifically didn’t like the way Rahul dealt with it either.

“The foundation which was laid didn’t capitalize, as an opening batsman in England or otherwise playing with the new ball is the toughest once they did that they had to capitalize and make it count. But unfortunately, they lost their wickets and will be really disappointed with the shot selection especially KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan,” he said talking on ESPNcricinfo.

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