Former India opener Abhinav Mukund has said that Indian batters’ failure to tackle the short ball has been a recurring issue during the ongoing tour of England. Speaking about this, Mukund said that Team India’s batting collapse cost them the match. However, England beat India by four wickets in the second ODI in Cardiff on Thursday, July 16 as well. Batting first after losing the toss, Team India went from 104-1 to 233 all-out. India were bowled out with six overs left. In the chase, Joe
Root helped England reach the finish line with an unbeaten 99 off 133 balls as well.

During a discussion on Cricinfo, Mukund said: “It’s been a pattern for the entire series – England peppering India with short pitch stuff on grounds that have bigger square boundaries, where the pull shots are not going out of the ground. England’s bowlers have been extremely effective with the usage of the short pitch delivery and I think Archer has been brilliant. Virat got caught out and then you had two more dismissals to the short pitch stuff.”

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Both India and England’s fast bowlers did well in the second ODI in Cardiff on Thursday. Mukund stated that while England ended up winning the game, Indian pacers actually bowled better for most of the match. He, however, also admitted that the comeback spells by England’s pacers made the big difference as well.

Abhinav Mukund concluded, “To be fair, I felt India’s pacers bowled better than the English pacers because their new ball spell was better. The usage of the short ball in the final spell from Gurnoor Brar, all of it were very big tick boxes for me. I felt England did not bowl well in the first 10. Unfortunately for India, the second spell where both Mahmood and Atkinson and Archer, all of them came back, ended up getting a lot of wickets.”