After suffering a humiliating 336-run defeat to India in the second Test at Edgbaston, England captain Ben Stokes called out the nature of the surface. The all-rounder complained that the pitch ‘ended up being more of a subcontinent’ and reasoned that to be the cause of England’s defeat. For the same, the home team management called for a spicier surface in the third Test at the iconic Lord’s.
Reflecting upon that, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak mentioned that the Edgbaston surface didn’t feel like a subcontinent one to him. He highlighted that the ball was moving well even after 40 overs, as the Indian pacers took advantage of it in the first innings. However, the 52-year-old noted that the ball was turning a little on Day 5, but eventually blamed England for trying to make a hard batting wicket.
“Personally, it didn’t look like a subcontinental wicket to me. Whenever our bowlers bowled, the ball moved. Even in the second innings, the ball was moving even after 40 overs,” said Kotak in the press conference.
“On the last day, maybe, the ball was turning a little. When you prepare such a hard wicket with grass, it won’t create rough but it will have footmarks, which help with the turn. I think they tried to make a hard batting wicket,” he added.
Our mindset is not to look for mindset: Kotak
When asked about aggressive batting, Kotak highlighted that India have been playing such a brand of cricket in the longest format. The batters have done well in both Headingley and Edgbaston, but despite so, Kotak noted that the mindset shouldn’t be of looking for boundaries.
“We have batted well in both the matches. I feel we have such skilful batters [who] can score at four an over without going searching for runs. What else is aggressive batting? We are scoring 360 in 90 overs. But our mindset now is to not go looking for boundaries,” Kotak said.