Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel has stated that the team management will reflect on the fact of not playing four frontline bowlers in the ongoing five-Test series against England. The series stands at a very tense spot, with England needing 35 runs and India needing four wickets for a win.
A win for England will give them a series win by 3-1, while for India, the Oval Test win will ensure they end the series at a 2-2 level.
Throughout the current Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, India has fielded three elite pacers to increase their batting depth, with the remaining three players mostly chosen for their batting prowess. India has only brought in three quicks and two spinners for the last Test match at the Oval, adding Karun Nair as an extra batter.
Kuldeep Yadav has been warming the bench for the entire Test series, as their choice spinners are Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja. Before the series started, it was anticipated that the left-arm wrist-spinner would be a key player, but the management of the Indian side had a different idea.
This strategy has come under fire, with critics saying India is not showing the hunger to pick 20 wickets to win tests. At the end of Day 4 of the Oval Test, Morkel was asked about India’s strategy to not play four frontline bowlers and admitted there were conversations around it.
“To be honest with you, that’s part of the conversation before every selection so far. And we just felt leading into the Test matches, if you look at the wicket and sort of the overhead conditions for the first three days, we felt that going with the extra batter was going to be important. I think in the last two Test matches, our force team didn’t really bowl that much because Washi and Jadeja could also end up and bowl some overs.
And yeah, they just thought, okay, having a lot of extra runs on the board was more important. But I think that’s something we’ll obviously reflect on after the tour. The things we could have done better,” Morkel told the media during the presser.
It seemed to be over when Joe Root and Harry Brook were fleeing with the Test. However, India did not give up and responded at the appropriate times to end the test on a high note, as has been the case throughout the tour.
“You can’t really afford to throw in the towel on a very important Test match, and for us it was key to break that partnership and get a new batter in. We’ve seen it so many times before, where if you get one, you can easily get one or two and just create a bit of pressure around that. So it wasn’t a case of hard words or any sort of big talk; it’s just for us to stay calm and really work hard to break that partnership, and from there, just to get the ball in the right area,” Morkel said.
England will aim to pocket the Test and the series with 35 more runs on the fifth day, while India needs four more runs.
(ANI inputs)
