Dinesh Karthik dropped a catch of Sam Curran after a desperate dive in the end stages of the Day’s 1 play. Thus, India could have skittle out the hosts had the Indian wicketkeeper not fluffed his chance.
Karthik jumped to his wrong left side but could hang on to the opportunity. Thus, Karthik bungled and he gave another life to 20-year old Sam Curran. In fact, it was first slip catch but Karthik decided to meddle with it.
India’s Slip Catching Needs to Improve.
However, Dinesh Karthik is more known for his batting than his wicketkeeping skills. Thus, India will miss the services of their first-choice gloveman Wriddhiman Saha.
Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane who is India’s best slip fielder also dropped a catch when he was standing at the fourth slip position. Thus, Keaton Jennings received a reprieve from India’s Test deputy.
On the other hand, India was able to bounce back in the final session of the day’s play. The visitors scalped six wickets in the third session and conceded 122 runs.
In fact, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow had put England in front with a quickfire partnership 104 runs. However, Virat Kohli’s brilliance in the field gave India a window by which they were able to bounce back.
Joe Root’s run-out was the turning point in the day’s play. Root dismissal opened the floodgates and Indian bowlers were able to come back. Root continued his love affair of getting fifties as he failed to make it back to the crease when he was batting on 80 runs.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin was the chief destroyer of England’s batting line-up. The off-spinner was able to scalp four wickets to put the hosts on the backfoot after a good start.
India will look to take the remaining one wicket as soon as possible. Subsequently, the onus will be on the batsmen to take India forward.
Here is the video of Dinesh Karthik’s drop:
https://twitter.com/iconicdeepak/status/1024711920291655681