Spilled chances kill England
ENGLAND will demand their star men stand up to be counted today to have any chance of saving the third Test against India.
Record run-getter Alastair Cook, skipper Joe Root and star allrounder Ben Stokes must all be at their best to save England from a heavy defeat at Trent Bridge.
England went to Nottingham 2-0 up but have shot themselves in the foot with a dismal first-innings total of 161 and some appalling catching, with 15 dropped in the series so far. And yesterday wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow had to go to hospital with a broken middle finger.
Cook and Keaton Jennings took England safely to 23 without loss at the close, needing another 498 runs to win. But assistant coach Paul Farbrace said: “You’re looking for Cook, Root, Stokes to get stuck in and show they are topquality players.
“You would expect your best players to show some gumption and some guts.
“They played well tonight but it’s about continuing that on and everyone going in and playing their way and with good intent.
“That doesn’t just mean scoring quickly, it means defending well, leaving well and rotating the strike.
“We think we’ve got some good catchers, but you can’t keep shelling chances the way we are. That comes down to two things: concentration or not being good enough.
“When you start to miss chances, that starts to eat away at you. Our bowlers stuck at the job really well but when bowlers are creating opportunities and catches are being dropped, that can be soul-destroying.”
England need to go back 90 years for their highest fourth-innings total to win a Test, when they made 332-7 in the final innings against Australia in Melbourne.
And they were given a good hard look at India captain Virat Kohli to show them how a Test innings is put together, even if he was dropped on 93 by Jennings.
Cheteshwar Pujara was also put down, by Buttler on 40, the result being that they put on 113 for the third wicket and Kohli went on to top score with 103, his second century of the series.
On top of that leg spinner Adil Rashid has a hip injury which further hampered his already poor bowling. This will increase the demands for all-rounder Sam Curran to replace him for the fourth Test after being dropped to make way for Stokes.