After India staged a late fightback on day 1 to reduce England to 198 for seven at the Oval on Friday, it seemed a task too easy to bag the remaining three on the second morning in London. But after the early dismissal of Adil Rashid, Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad frustrated Indian attack to make it what seemed to be an endless session for the visitors. Their efforts added 134 runs more to the board taking the total to 332 all out with Ravindra Jadeja taking two wickets. And former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar questioned Virat Kohli’s tactics against the lower order on day 2.
Agarkar, in talking to ESPN Cricinfo, reckoned that although three wickets were left which was expected to be dismissed early on, India had no plan B for them.
“I think poor start today. The one thing that India did well throughout the course of the first day was being a lot more patient and keep hitting decent lines and length. But then tactically you have to question Virat Kohli at times when things are not just happening for bowlers. Starting with the deep-point today, in spite of all those defensive fields India conceded 106 runs in the first session with basically the tail batting with Buttler,” said the former Indian pacer.
“Buttler has been good and smart and he has not avoided giving the tail-ender on strike, taking singles as well and that made India pay. Broad and Rashid played well. But yeah…India doesn’t seem to have a plan B, if plan A doesn’t work. And today, the execution of plan A wasn’t good as yesterday. Probably the desperation to bowl England out early got the better of them. A little bit of fatigue too as well for the three seamers and Jadeja wasn’t good either.”
