"We should have been ready for a reality shock" - Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra feels the Indian batting collapse on the fourth day of the Headingley Test against England was not a bolt from the blue.
Team India had gone into the fourth day of the third Test trailing England by 139 runs with eight second-innings wickets in hand. However, the visitors were blown away by the England seamers on the fourth morning, with the hosts levelling the series with an innings-and-76-runs win.
While reviewing the fourth day's play in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra pointed out that Indian fans should not be taken by surprise by the collapse, saying:
"We had hopes because the Indian team had given us permission to dream a little, to fantasise and write a fairy tale. But nothing like that happened. We should have been ready for a reality shock."
The cricketer-turned-commentator reasoned that tackling the new ball on the Headingley surface was always going to be an uphill task. Aakash Chopra elaborated in this regard:
"Nasser Hussain had said that this is Headingley and not Kolkata; the second new ball does a lot on the Headingley pitch, and you are not out of the woods. Forget out of the woods; we were completely buried in the end."
Team India lost their last eight wickets for the addition of just 63 runs. Ollie Robinson, who took a five-wicket haul, was the wrecker in chief.
"The second new ball demolished the castles in the air we had built" - Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra added that the capitulation at Headingley is a blow to the Indian team after the lofty highs of Lord's, saying:
"We lost the remaining eight wickets in just one session. The second new ball demolished the castles in the air we had built. England have got the win; the series is standing at 1-1. We need to agree that after the high at Lord's, we saw a slight shock at Leeds."
The 43-year-old observed that it was almost a procession after Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli were dismissed.
"Cheteshwar Pujara, it was an incoming delivery, he does a shoulder arm, the umpire gives not out, but was subsequently given out as the ball was hitting the stumps," said Chopra. "After that Kohli got out, and then the palace we had built with a pack of cards disappeared all of a sudden."
The Indian lower order was always going to have a tough time against the second new ball. The likes of Pujara, Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane had to play out the first session for the visitors to have any chance of posing a challenge to England, but that didn't happen eventually.