Dropped catches set us back: Sanjay Bangar

Dropping catches in the first couple of over isn’t the exact way a team would like to start a five-match series. India, unfortunately, began in such way at the SAC Stadium today after they spoiled the opportunities to dismiss England captain Alastair Cook and debutant opener Haseeb Hameed in the first hour of play.

Cook survived two chances in the space of six balls. The first one came off Mohammad Shami’s opening over and the second in the following over off Umesh Yadav’s bowling. While 19-year-old debutant Haseeb Hameed gained one life after Murali Vijay squandered a chance at slips. The duo did not cause any huge damage but batting coach Sanjay Bangar states that this early morning blunder ‘set them back.’

“In the first session of day one of a Test match there’s always something in the wicket. Whether you bat or bowl first, you need to make the first session count. There were unfortunately, a couple of dropped catches which did not allow us to make those early dents into their batting line-up. That set us back,” said Bangar at the media conference after day one of the opening cricket Test.

“We could have definitely started well in that first session. Had we taken those catches we would probably have been asking questions to their middle-order,” Bangar rued.

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Joe Root and Moeen Ali took control of the last couple of sessions to take the tourists to a dominant position of 311/4 at the end of day’s play. While the Root became the first visiting batsman in more than 3 years to score a Test ton in India, Ali finished one short of his 4th Test century.

There were fielding mistakes during the duo stay as well. Ali was let off soon after reaching his half-century by Cheteshwar Pujara off Ravichandran Ashwin with England. Bangar said even after the let-offs, Indian bowlers managed to reduce England to 102 for three at lunch before the visitors took charge in the last two sessions.

“But at lunch I feel we still managed to pick up three wickets. We would still have taken that at the start of the session. But full credit to them; they fully utilised the conditions on offer in Rajkot on day one. It was a day one wicket. Rajkot is known to be a batsman’s paradise. They are quality players and they applied themselves well,” he said.

However, he was quite optimistic that not everything was lost as yet.

“The game changes quickly. They are four down at the moment. A couple of quick wickets (on Thursday) and we could make early inroads, wrap them up before a session and half. You never know. It’s still day one and had we taken those catches, we could have taken six wickets and conceded 25 fewer runs,” Bangar said.

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India did not take the new ball even after it was due late in the day and Bangar said it was because the ball was reversing.

“You must have noticed reverse swing was still on offer at that point of time. Shami was available then. Umesh Yadav had put in a valiant effort when Shami was not available
before and after tea for a particular amount of time.

“Umesh ran in well and gave us that breakthrough. He was very impressive – getting the ball to reverse both ways and so was Shami. Wicket taking possibility with the old ball was
much higher at that point of time,” he said.

Shami left the field after bowling one ball in his second spell only to return later, and Bangar attributed his absence to cramps.

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“The physiotherapist told us it was muscular cramps. He took an ice bath. He was fine to bowl after that. But he’s being monitored closely. Apart from cramps, I don’t think there’s much to it. Hopefully, he will be fresher and fitter and ready to bowl in the first session,” the bowling coach said.

Bangar also defended the decision to under bowl leg-spinner Amit Mishra even as Ashwin was utilised for 31 overs.

“Generally when you are playing five bowlers on a particular day like here and with obviously Ashwin being our no 1 spinner he ended up bowling more than 25 overs. And with freshness with the new ball seamers also had a role to play, it eventually means one of the spinners might get fewer overs and that was the case with Amit Mishra today,” he said.