Manchester, July 26 Former England captain Michael Atherton believes it’s now a long way back for India in the ongoing fourth Test at Old Trafford, adding that he didn’t feel surprised over the visitors’ losing two wickets early before lunch break on day four.
Veteran all-rounder Chris Woakes took out Yashasvi Jaiswal and B Sai Sudharsan for ducks to leave India in trouble at 1/2 in three overs. They still trail England by more than 300 runs and need something huge to take the Test to the final day.
"The openers have got to come out more than 300 behind - there's probably no tougher situation in Test cricket - and so it was no surprise really that those two early wickets went. It's a long way back from there.”
"Jaiswal has had a funny old series really, some highs but also a few lows. And with Sudharsan, India have got a problem at No. 3 because they can't seem to settle on someone there," said Atherton on Sky Sports’ broadcast.
He also lauded England for doing the mental disintegration of the Indian team by piling up 669 runs in their first innings. "It's a tough game, isn't it. (Former Australia captain Steve Waugh) used the term 'mental disintegration', which is about what we just saw. You're keeping a team out in the field for 150-160 overs, that's how you disintegrate a team."
Ricky Ponting, the former Australia skipper, felt things would not be easy for India, citing that dismissals of Jaiswal and Sudharsan were caused by tiredness too. "It's been a pretty perfect couple of days (for England), to be honest. A lot of personal things have worked well for them, with Ben Stokes getting a hundred and five-for in the first innings."
"They kept India out in the field just long enough... those first couple of dismissals looked like quite tired shots. And things aren't going to get much easier for India as the day goes on," he concluded.
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