IND vs ENG: 'The fear of baseball is almost visible', Alastair Cook takes a dig at the Indian team

Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook believes that India became cautious at the end of their second innings due to fear of the baseball. On the third day, India were comfortably at 211–4 in their second innings, with Shubman Gill scoring his third Test century.

More importantly, this was Gill's first century as the No. 3 batsman in Tests, with the pressure on him to battle a poor spell and justify his place in the playing eleven. But after that, Gill was out as his reverse sweep off Shoaib Bashir hit the gloves and went into the hands of wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.

Axar Patel was LBW by Tom Hartley, while K.S. Bharat, in an attempt to break the scoring drought, misplayed his pull to wide mid-on off the bowling of Rehaan Ahmed and Kuldeep Yadav slog-swept it to mid-wicket off the bowling of Hartley.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah made a partnership of 26 runs for the ninth wicket, but it took 12 overs to build this partnership. Ashwin took his time before hitting three fours off Rehan, as he and Bumrah curiously did not attempt more aggressive shots.

Eventually, Bumrah was caught at gully off Hartley and was out for a duck off 26 balls, and Rehan ended India's innings when Foakes took a sharp catch on an outside ball off Ashwin's bat, allowing the hosts to take the lead. Lost its last six wickets for 44 runs.

“You can almost see a little bit of the fear of baseball,” Cook said. They are 400 runs ahead, but in the last half hour Ashwin kept it going like every run was so important and you think if it was against any other side, I have led those teams before and all that. 'This Indian team will try to crash and bowl this ball around the park with the lower order.'

“There is something about this side that has created a bit of chaos in the opposition, and India is very wary of that,” Cook told TNT Sports. The chances of England chasing 400 in the subcontinent in the fourth innings are very slim, but they know that if Crawley goes, Stokes goes, Root goes, it has happened to them in the past.

Cook, who led England to a 2-1 series win in India under his captaincy in 2012, also believes that India could not win a single Test match at home in their last three Test matches, which may have affected their defensive batting in the last round. Have also played a role. Second innings, which also affected his bowling strategy before stumps.

“It could also be a bit of confidence in the Indian team, they are not playing their best cricket, so they are giving themselves extra protection (with the bat). We saw it in that last session, I don't remember any Indian team which did not have any fielders around the batsmen for their spinners on the third evening in the last four or five overs.

“Don't be short-legged or silly point, the impact it has had on the opposition is almost staggering. No team on the subcontinent has come close to such a score. We're only talking about it as a possibility because of what Ben Stokes has done for the team."
Chasing a target of 399, England ended the third day at 67/1 in 14 overs. Although they lost Ben Duckett, Jack Crawley remained unbeaten on 29, with the promoted Rehan Ahmed remaining unbeaten on nine, with England needing a further 332 runs. A stunning victory in the toughest challenge ever in the baseball era.

Cook believes that Crawley will play a key role in England's chase. “Jack Crawley is going to play such an important role tomorrow. His ability to score runs at his pace, as a boundary hitter, will play a vital role in the morning.

Cook said, 'I don't want to write England off because people have done it before and I will keep my hands up, I did it in the first Test when they were behind by 190 runs. This requires a special innings from Ollie Pope and it will require a talented innings. They can do this.