SOUTHAMPTON: India batting coach Sanjay Bangar feels Hardik Pandya and Ravichandran Ashwin were guilty of giving away their wickets rather softly in the fourth Test against England in which the team let slip a strong position owing to a middle-order collapse.
Bangar said India could have been in a better position had Pandya and Ashwin applied themselves a little more. India were all out for 273 on Friday in response to England’s 246.
“A couple of dismissals were really really soft. Hardik was not really on top of the ball while driving and Ashwin attempted that reverse sweep at a pretty early stage of his innings.
Had he been set and been batting with the tail one could have thought that the shot was on,” Bangar said at the end of day’s play.
While Ashwin was dismissed for 1, Pandya got out after adding just four runs to the total. “…at that point in time wherein Pujara was going so well, they could have done those things differently.
As professional cricketers, we practice for all we are likely to encounter. Our cricket was prepared for all sorts of eventuality.
It was not only about seam bowling, we had also done practice and spoken about how the spin challenge we might encounter,” he added. (PTI)
