England began Day 2 with a brilliant first session where they scored 92 runs without losing a single wicket. All-rounder Ben Stokes played his natural game to begin with and took the attack to the opposition without any hesitation. Skipper Joe Root finished the first session going past the 150-run mark in his third consecutive Test.
However, it was Stokes who led the charge while Root kept rotating strike at the other end. Although he reached his half-century in 73 deliveries, he did give a couple of chances to the Indians. R Ashwin dropped a catch off his own bowling in the 110th over while Cheteshwar Pujara dropped another tough one in the very next over from Shahbaz Nadeem.
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Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar, was specifically unhappy with the drop by Ashwin and stated that the Indian fielding coach should give the bowlers practice about caught and bowled chances.
Gavaskar told Star Sports, "Just like they practice the pull shot, the cut shot in the nets, I think the fielding coach must also try and give them these caught and bowled situations as if the bowler has bowled and then he looks up and the catch comes."
"It is an important aspect. India have been missing a fair few caught and bowled opportunities. I don’t know how they will be able to practice that but they need to do that," he added.
Ben Stokes finally got out to Shahbaz Nadeem when Cheteshwar Pujara pouched the catch at deep backward square leg, albeit on the second attempt. The all-rounder had scored 82 off 118 deliveries by then.
Indian fielding coach R Sridhar will have a task at hand if Team India decide to follow the suggestion from Sunil Gavaskar in the coming days.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)