Virat Kohli-led Indian Cricket Team made a fantastic comeback into the ongoing Test series, as India took a brilliant lead of 168 in the first innings after England bowled out for 161 runs at Trent Bridge on Sunday (19 August) in the third Test following their humiliating defeat at the Lord’s Test. With India finishing day 2 at 124 for 2, they have stretched their lead to 292 with three days of play left. 

With the help of Kohli (97) and Ajinkya Rahane’s (81) brilliant effort with the bat, India successfully post a brilliant total of 329 in their first innings, while all-rounder Hardik Pandya broke the backbone of English team by taking five-wickets, which helped the touring side  keep their nose ahead so far in the Test match. 

Recently, former West Indies cricket Michael Holding had said that Pandya is not an all-rounder yet in the traditional format of the game, but now the commentator has taken a U-turn regarding his comment after Hardik's success with the ball. 

With his brilliant effort with the ball, Pandya played a key role in Team’s strong return in the third Test and justified his place in the Playing XI and Holding was all praise for the all-rounder for his effort.

In his column for Sky Sports, Holding wrote, “England lost 10 wickets in a session for the third time in the last two years but you have to say that the bowlers bowled well for India, Hardik Pandya in particular. He kept the ball up, which was so important, and it was swinging around. A couple of shots from the England batsmen were a little bit out of character, for instance Chris Woakes hooking at that ball. I don’t think that was advisable at that stage of the game.”

He signed off by saying, “I think the bowlers bowled well, you can’t take anything away from them. They deserve credit for the way they changed things because the first spell from the Indian bowlers wasn’t very good. They were bowling a little bit too short in my book. After lunch though, they were a lot better.”