Former India player turned commentator Saba Karim has opined that Ollie Pope got out to Ravindra Jadeja in the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy while playing an ordinary shot. He added that the England batter’s feet didn’t move towards the ball and that he ended up getting out as well. Pope scored 44 runs off 104 deliveries as well.

During a discussion on Sony Sports, Saba said, “I felt it was an ordinary shot. He had played such a good knock till then. As soon as he played the first ball after the break, where did the feet go, and where was the ball going? The ball was almost on the seventh stump, and since the foot went straight, you have just flayed the bat at it with the hope that if the contact happens, it will be with the middle of the bat. It doesn’t happen like that.”

“An Asian continent batter would have played that ball off the back foot. The ball was so far away, you couldn’t have played it on the front foot at all. He not only played it, he flayed the bat at it from far. A good player against spin would have gone onto the back foot and punched this ball towards cover. It wasn’t a full ball at all. He played an extremely ordinary shot,” he further added.

However, Saba Karim also shared his views on Ollie Pope’s knock.

“I feel it becomes very easy to play with Joe Root because you learn a lot. His approach shows that if you also spend time, the footwork automatically starts working. You are able to figure out how to play the moving ball. The England team needed that partnership very badly at that stage. After the first Test match, Ollie Pope felt the Indian seam bowlers had exploited his weakness in the last Test match, and he had to buckle down a lot and bat here,” Saba Karim concluded.