Following the 266-run thrashing at the hands of England at Rose Bowl, Southampton, in the third of the five-match Test series, Indian captain MS Dhoni, speaking at the post match presentation ceremony, confirmed that the pacer Ishant Sharma will definitely not be available for the next match at Manchester, Old Trafford, that starts on August 7.
The lanky pacer, after bowling India out to a spectacular victory at Lord’s by taking a seven-for in the final innings, had to miss the third match due to a sore leg, and the reports indicate that he hasn’t yet recovered from it completely to be fit in time for the penultimate one of the series.
Chasing a target of 445, the visitors crumbled under pressure getting dismissed for 178, unable to handle spin of Moeen Ali, who registered a personal best of 6-67 in 20 overs.
The 33-year-old, when asked by former England captain Michael Atherton on the 25-year-old’s availability, said: “Ishant won't be fit for the next game, Pankaj bowled really well, tall guy bowled good lengths. In this pitch he bowled the right length. Could have got three wickets but it just didn't go his way. Shami and Bhuvi bowled well too, they dont hit the deck hard when they not normally do. When it comes ot talent, we are good. In the mental approach, we have to play out shots and back ourselves because cricket is about runs and wickets."
Batting first, England made use of good batting conditions and the lack of penetration in the Indian bowling line-up to amass a total of 569/7. In response, India were bowled out for 330. England captain Alatair Cook opted not to enforce follow-on and further piled misery on the visitors by racking up 205 in just 40.4 overs before declaring the innings.
The Indian team will be particularly worried about the form of Virat Kohli and the surprising inability of Cheteshwar Pujara to convert the starts into bigger ones, which he has developed of later despite looking at ease out on the wicket, while the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Mohammed Shami, who have been listless in the 3 Tests so far, are widely expected to get the sack with Gautam Gambhir and Ishwar Pandey waiting in the wings.
Dropping Stuart Binny
When asked about returning to the 4-bowler theory again after going in with 5-bowlers in the first 2 Test matches, Dhoni said: “We could have looked at the Test today a different way without that. The reason for using four bowlers i is the we never used the fifth. We just used him for 10 and 8 overs. With Shikhar and Vijay and Rohit around we thought we could do it. But it's the bowling we need to improve and hit the top of off stump.
We will have to think about the four-bowler strategy. We can say the extra batsman didn't score, but then again the extra bowler didit pick up wickets. So we have to discuss a lot and decide on the basis of the pitch.”
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