IND vs ENG 2021: "Both India and England will consider each other lucky for the draw" - Zaheer Khan
Zaheer Khan feels both India and England will consider each other lucky to get away with a draw in the first Test at Trent Bridge. He admitted India were favorites to win the match on Day 5 if the rain hadn't intervened but added that Joe Root and co. would have believed they too had a fair chance of bowling India out.
India had nine wickets in hand and needed 157 runs to add to their overnight score of 52/1 on Sunday before the match was washed out. Although the visitors have never chased a target of over 200 in the country, the Trent Bridge pitch was still conducive to quick scoring and India had the batting lineup to take the game deep.
In an interaction with Cricbuzz, Zaheer Khan said India can also look back at their performance on the first four days and take confidence from it going ahead in the series.
"If you are in the Indian dressing room, you should definitely think you were in control and could have won this match. If the series reaches a point where the players feel self doubt, then they can certainly look back at this performance and this Test was successful from that point of view. If you see, because of the rain breaks, the wicket wasn't a fifth day one...if they had played for the whole day, India had more chances to win this match."
The former Indian pacer added that both teams will now look at the positives and learnings from this match.
"The shorter the game time, the better it would have been for England because of the conditions, required run-rate and an opportunity to set attacking fields. But all you can do right now is look at the positives and what learnings you can take from here. Both dressing rooms will be in that kind of mood and perhaps Indian chats will be about how England got a bit lucky because of the rain while the English dressing room will say they had the bowling ability to win the game," Zaheer Khan added.
Zaheer Khan talks about having reserve days for all Tests
Zaheer Khan also opined on the prospect of having a reserve day for every bilateral Test match. He said it was a "good thought" but added that cricket will have to stick to the current protocols until a better solution is reached.
"It's a good thought. If the result is possible then you can think about it. But wasn't there another topic being discussed that 5-day Tests should be reduced to four? (chuckles) Rules keep changing. At the moment, we can just stick to the rules we have. When there are such games then one always longs for that extra day but if one's team was lagging behind the match then they would have probably been happier without a reserve day," he signed off.
The iconic Lord's will host the second Test between India and England beginning on August 12.