'I don’t think it was deliberate' - India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour reacts on alleged ball-tampering incident at Lord's

The England-India second Test match has been quite an eventful affair so far. However, something that caught many eyeballs whilst the game was the footage that went viral. An incident of a player from England passing the ball to another who used his spikes to trap it created a buzz on social media platforms. Former India cricketers Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra also led questions on the matter.

The footage came in from the official broadcasters and started doing rounds on Twitter as the cricketing fraternity raised questions and termed it as a ball-tampering attempt. However, India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour feels that it was not deliberate from the hosts. “We saw it much later but I don’t think it was deliberate,” Rathour asserted at the post-day press conference.

No official complaint has been lodged yet by the Indian team regarding this incident, which was recorded in the 35^th over of the second innings. The footage did not reveal the faces of the players and the scene did not go any further and the umpires did not change the ball either. The England bowler Stuart Broad was asked by a Twitter user for his thoughts on this wherein the pacer tweeted an explanation to it.

“My comments are- Woody tried to nut meg Burnsy by tapping the ball through his legs (a very common occurrence) & he missed and kicked the ball there by accident. Instead of screenshotting the pic, watch the video quite plain & easy to see” Broad’s Tweet read.

England-India second Test match evenly poised

After bundling up the hosts for 391 on Day 3, India walked to take the charge of the field with the bat. Joe Root’s ploy to bring Mark Wood early in the attack paid off to England as he removed both the openers early on. The Indian skipper Virat Kohli too could add just 20 runs to his account. From 55/3, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara built in a 100 run partnership for India.

But eventually, both of them walked back to the hut. Rishabh Pant and Ishant Sharma are currently holding the fort of the team after Jadeja departed to a splendid delivery off Moeen Ali.