Sunil Gavaskar, former India skipper, has lavished praise on the Indian team after their brilliant victory over England in the third Test. Virat Kohli’s men were on backfoot right from the start when they lost an important loss. However, Ravichandran Ashwin and co. bowled brilliantly to not let England capitalise on the opportunity, as they dismissed the visitors for only 283 runs. The bowlers performed well in the second innings too as Alastair Cook’s England could score only 236 runs, setting India a target of only 102 which they chased down comfortably.
Pleased with India’s performance, Gavaskar told NDTV:“This is a near-to-perfect performance by the Indian team and I will give 9.75 out of 10 to India for their performance in the Mohali Test.
“England were never in a position to win the game. They had won the toss and lost the opportunity to take a good lead in the first innings. They have not played good cricket and they have to accept it” he added.
The pitch offered a lot of assistance to the fast bowlers but the English bowlers failed to exploit the conditions and Gavaskar felt the visitors cannot make excuses for the loss.
“There is no excuse for England for the conditions or the pitch. These were England-like conditions and they should have performed better,” he explained.
The retired cricketer was all praise for India’s lower-order batsmen too. In reply to England’s first innings total of 283, the hosts were reeling at 204 for 6. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav scored half-centuries to guide their team past 400.
“Indian spinners were brilliant with the bat. The seven, eight and nine numbers for India were the key, as they contributed with the bat and because of them India got past England’s first innings total,” Gavaskar said.
Commenting on Virat Kohli’s captaincy, the former skipper said:” Virat is getting better with every match, He is beginning to believe in his players and his teammates are also responding to him. Because of this, India are ahead in the series.
The caravan now moves to Mumbai where the fourth Test will start from December 8.