The Indian cricket team suffered a heartbreaking 22-run loss in the third Test at Lord’s against England, leaving them trailing 1-2 in the five-match Test series.
While the Indian think-tank, under the tutelage of Gautam Gambhir, will ponder over the next few days on what could have been done better, one aspect that deserves a key look is their tendency to lose wickets in bunches, and that too right before a session break.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan also poked fun at the pattern and jokingly said: “They obviously like the food here. The thing about the lunches is that they can have them if they’re obviously dismissed,” joked Vaughan before telling Dinesh Karthik in a chat for Cricbuzz: “That’s just (loss of) concentration. You’ve played enough cricket to understand that. The more you think about batting differently towards the end of a session, the more you’re probably going to get out. You’ve just got to naturally play. Just naturally play. That’s just a mentality thing that this team has to get better at. I guess the inexperience of the group; They’re an inexperienced group.”
He added: “Gill will be slightly concerned about that collapse, the first innings collapse down the back end, the little collapse last night and then another three quick wickets this morning. You don’t win many Test matches when you lose so many wickets in clusters. That’s something that India can’t afford in the last two games.”
Former India keeper Dinesh Karthik also pointed out how Nitish Reddy and Jasprit Bumrah were dismissed right before a break.
In the first Test at Headingly, India followed a similar habit and lost KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan (on Day 1). Shubman Gill, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur all fell before the break on day 2.
At Edgbaston, Karun Nair and Ravindra Jadeja were out before the break yet again.
With two Tests left, fixing this “snack-time syndrome” may be crucial to India’s hopes of a comeback.