Sunil Gavaskar rips into Ben Stokes & Co. over Manchester Test theatrics: ‘Why did you not declare?'

Mint

5 days ago

Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has questioned England's tactics in the fourth Test at Manchester, wondering why the hosts did not declare their innings sooner in order to force a result and instead waited to be bowled out. Going into the third innings, England had a lead of 311 runs, and while their pacers had a dream start by dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan without a run on the board, they could not secure a win for their side.
The match ended in a draw after solid partnerships first between skipper Shubman Gill and KL Rahul, and then between Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja ensured there was only one possible outcome. In the final hour of play, England captain Ben Stokes offered Jadeja and Sundar the chance to end the match with a draw, but the two batters were not in the mood to accept the offer, as both were close to reaching their respective centuries.
After the offer was turned down, English players began sharing a piece of their mind with the Indian batters. Zak Crawley remarked that if they wanted to score a hundred, they should bat faster, while another fielder sarcastically asked how long it would take to get there.
Lauding the effort put in by the young Indian team to draw the Test match, Gavaskar said (on Sony Sports), "I'm proud. I'm enormously proud of this, this team, for what they've done. I mean, just four wickets, yes, whatever the pitch might have been, whether it is good pitch, flat pitch, whatever it is to stick around there under pressure. "
The former India captain went on to raise questions about England's tactics and wondered why England didn't declare earlier in the match if they wanted a result. Gavaskar also compared the situation to the one in Edgbaston where team India gave England a target of 608 runs to chase in the fourth innings of the match that wasn't particularly well received by the English players.
'And the question can be asked, Did England bat too long before they declared, because, you know when, when India gave England 600 runs to chase, 600 plus rush to chase at Birmingham, some of the England players, when they came out for the press conference later on, they said, but they were scared, and that's why they gave us more than 600 when I remember reading somewhere earlier on that you know, one England players that said, while they were in India, give us 600 plus. Give us anything we'll chase. That's what in India looked at. Give you 600 runs. But you ended up 336 run short. So that was just Bravado, just a little bit of loud talk.' Gavaskar added