Former England skipper Nasser Hussain questioned the tactics of current captain, Ben Stokes, against wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant during the ongoing Headingley Test against India, saying the all-rounder was atypically defensive.
Pant scored two centuries in the Test 鈥 scoring 134 off 178 during first innings, and 118 off 140 balls in the second innings 鈥 becoming the first Indian wicketkeeper in Test cricket to score twin tons.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Nasser commented on the shaky start Pant had to the innings. He felt that Pant鈥檚 impatience could have been exploited, but he was allowed to dig-in, and push through.
鈥淲hat I didn鈥檛 like was the phase early in Pant鈥檚 innings, when he was cross with himself, and England allowed him to knock the ball into a gap and walk down the other end. It鈥檚 an odd thing to say about a player who has scored as many runs as Pant, but that鈥檚 when you want to keep him on strike, because that is the best time to get him out. A team can take advantage when he鈥檚 getting frustrated with himself, because after four or five dots, he might try to do something stupid. Instead, he was calming down at the non-striker鈥檚 end.鈥
He further commented that Stokes, wanting to adjust tactics to fit the needs of the match, hyper-focused on Pant鈥檚 鈥榠diosyncracies鈥, that played right into the batter鈥檚 strengths. Critical of Stokes鈥 鈥榙efensive鈥 stance, he wrote:
鈥淚ndia鈥檚 other second-innings centurion, KL Rahul, batted at the same tempo throughout the day, but Stokes鈥檚 tactics were motivated by Pant鈥檚 idiosyncrasies. He removed his slips and put fielders back. It was one of the few times that I have seen Stokes go defensive. As I say, he did so because he clearly felt that he was more likely to get Pant caught in the deep鈥 What Stokes could have done, as he often has 鈥 especially when captaining spin in Asia 鈥 was set in-out fields. That would have provided him with men round the bat 鈥 prime real estate for Test cricket in Leeds 鈥 but also fielders in the deep.鈥
Now on Day 4 of the first test for the Tendulkar-Anderson trophy, England chase a mammoth 350; hoping to get off to a winning start to the series.