Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar criticised India on Wednesday for their lower-order batting failures, poor bowling, and sloppy fielding, which led to a defeat in the first Test of the five-match series for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy at Headingley.
A young Indian team, led by new captain Shubman Gill and missing the retired Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, lost by five wickets as England comfortably chased what should have been a challenging target of 371 on the final day.
Five Indian batsmen, including Gill, scored centuries.
The fielding errors were glaring; India dropped five catches in England鈥檚 first innings alone, with Yashasvi Jaiswal dropping four throughout the match. Several of these were crucial moments that allowed English batters to regain control and shift the momentum. The problems didn鈥檛 end there. Despite strong top-order performances in both innings, India鈥檚 lower-middle order collapsed twice, allowing England to claw back into the match and eventually claim victory.
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鈥淔ull credit to England. Despite India having five centurions, they seemed to have that confidence,鈥 Gavaskar said on Sony Sports.
鈥淭hat is what made them take the final wickets. So that is where India also missed out because those extra runs could have made the difference,鈥 added the former captain.
鈥淎s far as the fielding was concerned, it鈥檚 just not the catches, but the outfielding was pretty ordinary. Not Test class.鈥
鈥淗opefully, lessons have been learned,鈥 he added.
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah took 5/83 in the first innings but went wicketless during England鈥檚 chase. Veteran left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, expected to excel on a worn fifth-day wicket, took just 1/104 as Duckett mercilessly reverse-swept him for a series of boundaries, including a majestic six over deep cover.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to be critical of Jadeja because this is a final-day pitch,鈥 former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said.
鈥淭here was rough for him to play with, and in the end, I know there were a couple of chances there, but we have to expect more from Jadeja.鈥
(With inputs from Agencies)