ENG vs IND 2025: 'He cheated Joe Root' - Saba Karim lauds Akash Deep for his pearler to dismiss star England batter at Edgbaston

Akash Deep has breathed fire in the ongoing second Test between India and England at Edgbaston, Birmingham this week. After picking up four wickets in the first innings, the Bengal seamer bagged a couple of wickets on Day 4 in the second innings to put India in a sensational position to win their first-ever Test match at Edgbaston.

Deep had said before the Test match that he had expected the conditions in England to favour the seamers. However, he felt cheated after arriving in England and noticing that the conditions were pretty similar to that in India, where fast bowlers seldom find assistance from the surface.

However, former India cricketer and national selector Saba Karim stated that the 28-year-old cheated Joe Root by bowling a peach of a delivery to get rid of him in the latter stages of Day 4 of the Edgbaston Test.

"Akash Deep was talking about feeling cheated by the wicket as it was like an Indian wicket, but here he cheated Joe Root. When you are angling the ball in from wide of the crease, the batter is forced to think that the ball will come in only from that angle," Karim responded during an interaction on Sony Sports.

Karim also mentioned that the former England captain couldn't have anything different and most batters would have tried to play the unplayable delivery to the on-side like he did.

"If the ball straightens after pitching, what can the batter do? If you bowl such a ball to a great batter, it was definitely an unplayable delivery. Not only Joe Root, but 99.9 percent of the batters would have played like that towards the onside. Joe Root also tried that, and Akash Deep literally opened up Joe Root," Saba observed.

As a batter, you feel the ball will come in only from that angle: Hemang Badani

Former India cricketer and Delhi Capitals' head coach Hemang Badani explained how Root got bamboozled by the delivery from Deep.

"It was an excellent ball. He got completely beaten. He created an angle. He went wide off the crease, even touched the side line, created such a big angle, and then made the ball go straight from there. As a batter, you feel the ball will come in only from that angle," he said.

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"Once the ball straightened after pitching, Joe Root had no chance. When the angle of the seam position is towards fine leg, cricket's rule is that the ball cannot straighten from there. I don't believe Joe Root made a mistake. The ball pitched and went away. It's an unplayable ball. In my opinion, this was the best ball of this Test match," Badani observed.

England finished Day 4 at 72/3, needing another 536 runs to win the Test match on the final day. Meanwhile, India need just seven wickets to end their long wait to win a Test match at Edgbaston.