Despite India’s comfortable 106-run in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam on Monday, head coach Rahul Dravid felt the team fell short by about 75 runs in the first innings and wasn’t in any position to put pressure on the opposition.
“I think we left a few runs on the board in both the innings. In the first innings, 396 was under par. You win a toss, you have one guy who gets a double-hundred, you should be pushing 450-475 in these conditions,” Dravid said, while also acknowledging that the team had a lot of young batters who were still figuring out the longest format.
Barring Yashasvi Jaiswal’s double-century, no batter could convert starts in the first innings, with Shubman Gill’s 34 being the next best score. Similarly, in the second innings, Gill’s hundred was the only bright spot, with Axar Patel lending support with a steady 45.
Though Gill struck two valuable partnerships with Shreyas Iyer and Axar after the openers fell cheaply, India kept losing wickets at regular intervals, which Dravid feels didn’t allow the team to put any pressure on England.
“There was enough time in the game for us to just bat. We hadn’t decided to set any target. There wasn’t any stage in the game where we felt we could force the play. As soon we thought we could force the play, we lost a couple of wickets. I don’t think we were in any position, at any stage in this game, to ever think about putting pressure back on the opposition,” he added.
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India was bowled out for 255 in the second innings after losing its last five batters for the addition of just 35 runs. Set a daunting target of 399, England set about getting there in the fashion it has gone about Test cricket in the last two years, with James Anderson even saying on Sunday that they were looking to overhaul the target in 70-80 overs.
Dravid said India had done ‘just a little bit better than the last game’ in tackling England’s brand of cricket, often termed ‘Bazball’, which the coach thinks has more to it than just slogging.
“They [England] are playing really good cricket. They have shown good skills. It is not wild slogging. Some of the shots they are playing require a lot of skill and ability. You can’t play attackingly and not have the skills to execute it. There is more to it than just attacking cricket. They know when to pull back and [when] attack.”
With the series level at 1-1, which Dravid says is not ideal, India will head to Rajkot for the third Test, beginning on February 15, and brace for some ‘tough cricket’.
“Happy to be able to bounce back but we recognise it is going to be a fantastic series and some tough cricket will be played over the next three games,” Dravid said.
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