Former Australian captain Ian Chappell has impressed on the Indian pace-bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya and feels the ongoing five-match Test series on the English soil could be a defining series for him. Chappell feels Pandya can achieve success in bowling to follow the English all-rounder Ben Stokes’ effort with the ball, who picked up four wickets (4/40) in the fourth innings to secure a thrilling victory for England.
While England won the first Test at Edgbaston (Birmingham) by just 31 runs, Pandya put an important effort with the bat during India’s second innings. Chasing down the 194 runs target, when India was struggling on 112/6, Pandya put a good support to the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. After Kohli’s dismissals, Pandya fought till the end before getting out on 31 runs.
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Earlier, Pandya played a 22-run knock during India’s first innings while he ended with the wicket-less bowling figure after bowling only in the first innings.
Commenting about Pandya, Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNcricinfo, “India’s search for a seam-bowling all-rounder is still a work in progress but Hardik Pandya displayed determination and discipline to go with his undoubted skills in an important partnership with Kohli.”
Chappell feels that Pandya can get benefit with the bat if he has been promoted to the no.6 position. The former Aussie cricketer further added that Pandya can achieve success in the bowling to follow Stokes’ effort.
He wrote, “Perhaps a move to No 6 would further bolster his batting confidence and if he can also profit from watching Stokes’ efforts with the ball, this could be a defining series for the talented all-rounder.”
Commenting about Kohli’s innings in the Birmingham Test, Chappell wrote, “Having survived Anderson’s challenging examination Kohli went on to dominate the Indian first innings, scoring 82 of the 91 runs accumulated for the last two wickets. It was a similar dominance near the end of Stan McCabe’s glorious double-century at Trent Bridge in 1938 that caused captain Don Bradman to summon his players onto the balcony with the words; “You will never see anything like this again.”
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Chappell claimed that both the teams were sloppy in their slip fielding due to poor techniques and faulty alignment.
The former Aussie captain wrote, “Both England and India were sloppy in the slips, with a combination of poor technique and faulty alignment being to blame for the shoddy work. One reason for both sides dropping catches is that the fielders are standing too close to each other, thereby causing confusion.”
Chappell also claimed that the left-arm pacer Sam Curran and the pace bowling all-rounder Ben Stokes have increased the variety level of English bowling attack.
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He wrote on it, “Part of England’s success with the ball can be attributed to the increased variety in their attack. The addition of Sam Curran’s vibrant left-arm swing and Stokes’ rejuvenation with the ball made a huge difference to an attack that lacked variety in Australia.”
