AS ALWAYS, ALL GENUINE COMMENTS WILL RECEIVE AN UPVOTE
Fortunately, I missed the vast majority of today's cricket as I was out celebrating a friend's birthday. Maybe then England's batting collapse is my fault. Perhaps it's like those people who can't sleep on planes because they feel that the only way the aircraft can maintain altitude is through their own concentration and will to ensure it does so. Without me watching and willing them on, England's batsmen certainly came crashing back down to earth and in doing so, have more than likely handed India a way back into this 5 match series.
However, today's performance from England's batsmen shouldn't come as any major surprise. Despite leading the series 2-0 going into this match, England have found themselves in trouble during the second innings of the 1st Test at Edgbaston (87-7) and at Lord's where they were 131-5. In both those matches they have been indebted to the lower order for getting them out of trouble but today it wasn't to be. At one point England were close to being in the humiliating position of being asked to bat again with only some late hitting from Jos Buttler taking them past the follow-on.
The recent statistics for England's top order are shocking. In nearly half of their innings since 2016 (30 out of 61) England have been 4 down before their score has reached 100. Looking at the highlights today, Cook got a good ball from around the wicket and will just have to accept that dismissal. Jennings (who was out next ball) just needlessly poked at a delivery that he could have left on both line and length. His place in the team is now back under threat again after he looked uncomfortable against India's seamers.
The 2 wickets I did see fall while watching were Ollie Pope and Joe Root. Ollie Pope was a soft dismissal, caught down the leg-side. It might be tempting to say he was unlucky but against Sharma who was getting decent zip and carry through but who can only ever seem to get the ball to come back into the right handers it was criminal that he should have his bat anywhere near such a delivery. Indeed in helpful conditions and against a ball that was still only 22 overs old, Test match players need to show better "game management". England's failure to grit it out and then attempt to build an innings was even more frustrating given that Ravi Ashwin spent most of the innings off the pitch with a reported hip injury. I'd suggest next time that Ishant Sharma wants to run in and waste his energy banging balls in at your hip when his side are a already a bowler down then the best course of action would be to blow kisses at the deliveries as they sail harmlessly by you!
However, maybe I'm being a bit harsh on Ollie Pope, a 20 year old who has never batted higher than 5 in domestic cricket but is being asked to bat at 4 in a Test Match. Then again you could say the same about all of England's top order. The have a man at 3 who doesn't really want to bat 3, a man at 4 who's never tried to bat 4 and a man at 5 still lumbered with the responsibility of keeping wicket and trying to score meaningful runs. Again, it's hardly surprising that England have found themselves in trouble so often in recent years with such muddled selection.
There will be some England supporters bemoaning the fact that Joe Root was unfairly given out and that this was the point that caused the collapse. My first impression when I saw it live was that it was a clean catch. When you look at the slow motion replay it does appear to have bounced up, at least in part, off the ground and into KL Rahul's hand. However, i've always thought that those kind of slow motion replays tend to favour the batsman or at least they don't favour the umpire. It's almost impossible to make a decision about the trajectory of an object that is in a 3D environment when you are looking at it on a 2D screen, particularly when the margins are so fine. If England are going to try and hide behind the idea that they were somehow hard done by then they are even weaker than I thought! My suggestion would be that if you don't play nothing shots outside off-stump to nothing deliveries then you won't nick it anywhere near 2nd slip in the first place.
That England's bowlers did limited damage themselves is of little surprise. I can't imagine I'd be best pleased if I was an England bowler and being asked to dig the batsmen out of a hole again. For the record this is the 3rd time in 2 years that England have lost all 10wickets in a session. Prior to that England hadn't been subject to that ignominy for 78 years!
Before signing off for today though, let's also give credit where it is due to India's bowlers. Hardik Pandya, a man whose place has been questioned by many around the world, today answered those critics including the likes of Michael Holding by taking a 5 wicket haul (his 1st in Test cricket) and pushing his side close to victory.
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