India is on the verge of losing the Edgbaston Test after a poor outing with the ball on Monday. Batting coach Vikram Rathour has rued the Indians bowling in the wrong areas.
While India dominated most of the phase in the rescheduled fifth and final Test against England for the Pataudi Trophy, the latter has made a fine comeback to the game. Playing at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Monday (Day 4), chasing a puritanical total of 378, the hosts have done a fine job with the bat, as it is 259/3 and needs 119 runs to win, thanks to half-centuries from Alex Lees, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. In the meantime, the Indian batting coach lauded the English comeback while feeling that the visiting bowlers could have bowled at a better line and length.
"We had a pretty ordinary day with our batting. We could not convert starts. The game can still open up if two wickets fall early tomorrow morning. It's not beyond [Mohammed] Shami and [Jasprit] Bumrah. We needed to bowl better, in better areas; a couple of dropped catches also made a difference," felt Rathour during the post-day press conference, reports IANS.
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In the meantime, English opener Lees sounded optimistic about England's winning chances, saying, 'If we bat well for the first 30-40 minutes tomorrow morning, we should be in a pretty strong position. We are very optimistic. [Ben] Stokes' spell turned the game on its head. The [English] bowling this morning was the biggest turning point. The ultimate belief is that from one to 11, we can do it. My role was to put some pressure on the Indian bowlers."