The first Test between India and England ended in a stalemate as rains played a spoilsport at Nottingham. The Men in Blue needed 157 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand on Day 5. However, it drizzled continuously and the game was called off. However, former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan feels that India were the front runner in the competition. Here is Zaheer Khan About India And England.
IND vs ENG: Zaheer Khan About India And England
Zaheer Khan stated that India would have seemingly gained confidence from their strong performance against the English team. The ace pacer added that both the teams will, however, consider themselves lucky to get a draw as the game could have swung in any direction in the last day.
England’s bowlers carry enough mettle to turn any situation in their favour. Both India and England were equally in the game till the last day. India have a strong batting side and English bowlers would have backed themselves to take the remaining 9 wickets on the deciding day.
Zaheer Khan, in an interview with Cricbuzz, stated: “The shorter the game time, the better it would have been for England because of the conditions, required run-rate, and an opportunity to set attacking fields. But all you can do right now is look at the positives and what learnings you can take from here.”
“Both dressing rooms will be in that kind of mood and perhaps Indian chats will be about how England got a bit lucky because of the rain while the English dressing room will say they had the bowling ability to win the game,” Zaheer Khan said in an interaction with Cricbuzz.
Zaheer Khan also spoke about the thought of adding an extra day in Test games. “It’s a good thought. If the result is possible then you can think about it. But wasn’t there another topic being discussed that 5-day Tests should be reduced to four? (chuckles) Rules keep changing. At the moment, we can just stick to the rules we have. When there are such games then one always longs for that extra day but if one’s team was lagging behind the match then they would have probably been happier without a reserve day,” Zaheer added.
The second Test is scheduled to be played on 12th August at Lord’s.
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