India’s thinking has felt scrambled and confused at Old Trafford and their captain’s leadership absent
For 22 overs on the third morning India toiled in the field, rotating through their bowling options, none of them working. Well, all but one of their bowling options: Washington Sundar remained unused, occasionally performing solo warm‑up exercises in the outfield only to be left there to cool down again. But then the right‑armer is primarily known for his ability to generate drift, and drifting was the one thing India were doing pretty effectively already.
Finally, he got his chance. By then England’s innings was 68 overs old and India’s advantage had been whittled from 358 to only 53. In his three overs before lunch, with a tired ball, Washington brought some energy and some hope. Not with immediate reward, but enough to bring the slightest hint of a skip to his teammates’ trudge from the field. He returned after lunch to dismiss Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, but in doing so it was hard to know if he was helping India solve their problems, or simply highlighting them.
On Thursday they had mystifyingly chosen to give their startlingly pedestrian debutant Anshul Kamboj the new ball over Mohammed Siraj – who was later to add injury to insult – and sidelining for so long the bowler who was to prove their most dangerous was another indication of some seriously ditsy decision-making. And when sheer bad luck seems so intent on bringing a team to its knees, it is best not to give it a helping hand.
