Veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is really disappointed with the way the Indian batsmen batted in their first innings of the Southampton Test. Besides Cheteshwar Pujara and Captain Virat Kohli, none of the other Indian batsmen were able to counter English attack especially Moeen Ali on Day 2 of the series-decider Test here.

Kohli’s 46 and Pujara’s unbeaten 132, which was his 15th Test century took India to 273 runs in the first innings leaving the Men in Blue with a lead of just 27 runs. Harbhajan feels that the Indian batsmen should have done far better after their bowlers helped India take the initiative after bowling England out for less than 250 in their first innings. 

Harbhajan told Times of India on Friday (31 August), “It’s sad the way ouys are giving away these wickets. They should have done better than this. Those were really poor shots by Ashwin and Pandya. Not just me, they themselves would be disappointed with the shots they have played. If they had given themselves a bit more time, things would have been far easier.”

Meanwhile Bhajji lauded Moeen for his spectacular display with the ball on the second day. He ended with remarkable figures of 5 for 63, dismissing Rishabh Pant for a 29-ball duck, Hardik Pandya (4), Ravichandran Ashwin (1) and Mohammed Shami (0), as India were reduced from 142-2 to 195-8. Ali completed his second five-for against India by dismissing Ishant Sharma for 14.

He signed off by saying, “He varied the pace beautifully and made the batsmen play all the time. The fact that there was a bit of rough outside the off-stump created by Ishant’s footmarks helped his case as well.”