Team India’s wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant suffered a finger injury during India’s 22-run defeat to England at Lord’s, London, in the third Test of the five-match series. However, India’s assistant coach, Ryan ten Doeschate, confirmed that Pant didn’t participate in the practice session in Beckenham on Thursday, July 17. However, he is hopeful that Pant would regain full fitness ahead of India’s must-win fourth Test.

Ryan ten Doeschate said in a press conference ahead of the fourth Test: “He will bat in Manchester before the Test. I don’t think you want to keep Rishabh out of the Test, no matter what. He batted with quite a lot of pain in the third Test and it’s only going to get easier and easier on his finger. Keeping is obviously the last part of the process to make sure he can keep. We don’t want to go through that again, where we have to replace the keeper halfway through an innings. He rested today, hopefully, he is good to go in Manchester. He (Dhruv Jurel) is in the equation, but obviously, if Rishabh is fit, he plays the next Test.”

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He also commented on Team India’s batting performance in the Test series. He admitted that batting collapses were the main reasons behind their losses in Headingley and Lord’s as well.

“We feel like the guys have been excellent for a large part of the series. The repetition of losing lots of wickets in a very short space of time has been the key feature of the two losses. If you look at the run tally of all the batters, they are all batting nicely. Even someone like Karun, his rhythm and tempo are good. We want more runs from the three, but the message is mainly let’s really focus on what we have done well and tidy up the little things that have cost us results,” Ryan ten Doeschate stated again.

He also hinted at Karun Nair’s exclusion after sudden batting collapses at Lord’s and Headingley.

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Ryan ten Doeschate said: “That might be counter-intuitive when you’re 2-1 down in the series. But we feel like the guys have been excellent for large parts of the series. The repetition of losing lots of wickets in a very short space of time has obviously been the key feature of the two losses. Probably both times in Headingley and obviously overnight and first thing in the morning at Lord’s, we feel what cost us the game was losing six wickets for 40 again. But if you look at it individually, if you look at the run tally of all the batters, they’re all batting nicely.”

“Even someone like Karun, we feel his rhythm is good, his tempo is good. We want more runs from the three. But the message is mainly, let’s really focus on what we’ve done well and tidy up the little things that have cost us results, essentially,” Ryan ten Doeschate cocnluded.