According to former England captain Sir Alastair Cook, India has effectively eliminated the tourists’ chances of a comeback in the fifth Test at Dharamsala. Sir Alastair Cook predicts that throughout the following few days of the Test, England will suffer a slow death.
Day 1 ended with England wasting a good start, falling from 175-3 to 218 as left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav destroyed their batting order. At the conclusion of Day 1, the hosts were only behind by 83 with nine wickets remaining, due to four wickets each from Kuldeep and Ravichandran Ashwin.
In the first session of Day 2, England failed to claim any wickets. England was under pressure early on from Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal, the latter of whom smacked three sixes in one over off Shoaib Bashir. Bashir dismissed him for 57 runs.
No way back into the game-Sir Alastair Cook rates Team India as the clear favorites
Sir Alastair Cook believes that the game itself went away from the England on the day 1 of the 5th test when the batting collapse of England team happened and after that the team India’s openers off to a solid start to put England under pressure.
Speaking on TNT sports, Alastair Cook expressed:
“It went away from [England] yesterday and this is the icing on the cake for India. This is like ‘we are shutting every door and locking it’. There is no way back into the game for England – they are making sure that is the case. In Test cricket, it’s a slow death and England are going to experience that over the next couple of days, you feel, unless something strange happens,”
It’s been tough work for the English bowlers- Alastair Cook
Sir Alastair Cook praised Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma for keeping a great tempo during the morning session, saying:
“It’s been a brilliant partnership between these two – Gill in particular has been very aggressive this morning. Rohit has just steadied himself to a hundred, he realizes you don’t get many opportunities to book yourself in for a Test hundred. It’s been tough work for the English bowlers,”
Team India was on 473/8 at the end of day two’s play with a massive lead of 255 runs over England. Kuldeep Yadav (27*) and Jasprit Bumrah (19*) were at the crease, forming a partnership of 45 runs.