Published: Jul 01, 2025, 10:06 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 01, 2025, 10:06 PM (IST)
Former England star Monty Panesar advised Indian team to be ruthless with the new ball and pressurize England batters in such a way that they win the second Test at Edgbaston, which begins July 2nd. Even though the visitors had a strong bowling attack comprising of Jasprit Bumrah- who bagged the wicket of Zak Crawley- the team failed to gain the upper hand.
In an exclusive conversation with IANS, Monty Panesar described as ‘Smarter Bazball.’ “What we have seen with England, they play the first 10 overs very slowly because the ball moves around; it swings, and when the ball doesn’t do as much, they will start accelerating the scoring. So what they’re doing is they’re playing smarter ‘Bazball’ cricket.”
“What India must do is, with the new ball, they need to take wickets. That’s what they’ve got to do and if they don’t do that, I think they’re going to always play catch up. They need, like they did in Australia, they were taking wickets with the new ball. Same thing they have to do here. The way to win Test matches is that India must take wickets with the new ball,” Panesar told IANS.
Monty Panesar believes that even though Shubman Gill is inexperienced, his effort should go into creating the best bowling attack. He believes Prasidh Krishna needs to do well in England conditions and Kuldeep Yadav being included in the attack as spinner can play as a boost to Ravindra Jadeja to even take more wicket.
“He’s still inexperienced as a captain. I think Prasidh Krishna bowls the Australian length. He doesn’t bowl the UK length, which is slightly fuller, top of off stump. That’s why I think if he does play, he needs to bowl the ball fuller. He needs to take wickets in his first spell. He can’t be taking wickets, you know, later on,” he said.
“Kuldeep Yadav is going to be the attacking spinner if he plays, and Shubman Gill, you should use him in an attacking role. I think Jadeja will definitely play because of his batting; he could be the defensive spinner. Jadeja being the defensive spinner, I think that will help him to take wickets,” he added.
“So, if Kuldeep Yadav plays, Gill must use him as the attacking spinner, have attacking field sets. Have a field set that looks to take wickets. Kuldeep Yadav’s job is to take wickets,” he further added.
India’s squad for the Test series:
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC/wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
