India should have batted better and put England out of Edgbaston Test: Batting coach Vikram Rathour
India should have batted better and put England out of Edgbaston Test: Batting coach Vikram Rathour
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India's batting coach Vikram Rathour rued Indian batters' failure to convert the starts as England took control of the Edgbaston Test. England are 259/3 chasing a target of 378 with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow well set at the crease.
At 190/5 in their second innings, India were in a commanding position but collapsed to 245-all out and lost the opportunity to post a target of over 400.
At the conclusion of fourth day's play, Rathour admitted India had an "ordinary" day with the bat.
"The plans didn't work out. I'll agree that we had a pretty ordinary day as far as batting is concerned," Rathour said. "We were ahead in the game. We were in a position where we really could've batted them out of the game. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. A lot of people got starts but really couldn't convert. We were expecting one of them to play a big knock and have a big partnership but unfortunately it didn't happen like that."
Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah all fell to England's short-ball strategy as India lost their last five wickets for just 55 runs. Rathour said Indian batters needed to be smarter in the way they tackled the short balls.
"Yes, they used a short-ball plan against us in the field. We had to show a little better, not intent, but strategy. We could've handled it slightly differently," Rathour said. "People tried to play shots but didn't really convert or execute them well enough. They got out to that. We will have to rethink how we handle that next time in a similar situation, against similar bowlers who keep similar fields. We will need to have a better strategy against them."
"Of course, at this level you expect people to bowl short against us, and especially against the Indian team, people have been using short ball for quite some time," Rathour said referring to the Cape Town earlier this year where India collapsed against a similar short-ball strategy to lose the match by seven wickets.
"People have their own ways of dealing with that. As a batsman you have your own way to deal with that. We don't really say you have to do this or do that. As a batter you need to decide, according to your game, what suits you in that situation and in those conditions. Unfortunately, today we couldn't really execute whatever plans we had.
"Today was the day we were ahead. We should have actually batted better and put them out of the game with our batting. But unfortunately we didn't do that."
All said and done, England still have to make 119 runs on a day five pitch to win the match, and Rathour is positive that bowlers can bring India back into the match.
"Two wickets in the morning early and again the game will open up. We know that, we understand the game, it is a big target still. It's still more than 100 runs. We take two wickets early and the game can still open up," he said.
"The kind of bowling Shami and Bumrah are doing, it's not beyond them that they get one wicket, then one, two, three can fall. And that can bring us back in the game."
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