Hussain, Atherton tear into Ravindra Jadeja for costing India precious time: 'Why do you require the coach to tell you?'

Ravindra Jadeja’s slow knock drew flak from Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton as they India may regret his go-slow if Day 5 doesn’t go their way at Edgbaston

India were in a commanding position at Tea in Birmingham on the fourth evening of the second Test against England after captain Shubman Gill smashed a second consecutive hundred in the match. However, there was an air of disappointment among the experts on how Ravindra Jadeja went about his innings in the second session, scoring just 25 off 68, at a time when India are desperate to level the series at Edgbaston, having earlier lost the opener in Leeds last month.

Ravindra Jadeja scored an unbeaten 69 in the second innings in Birmingham

As Gill played second fiddle with his century, Rishabh Pant raised the tempo with his outrageous half-century knock that took India to 304 for four at the stroke of tea, leading by 484 runs in the match. But Jadeja, who was promoted up the order in the second innings, batting ahead of Nitish Kumar Reddy, struggled to find his rhythm, having scored just a single boundary in his 68-ball stay during the second session on Day 4.

However, he kicked off the penultimate evening of the match with a six on the second ball off Shoaib Bashir, which left commentators and former England captain Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton wondering why he could not have done that in the previous session. Hussain even warned India, saying that if things go south on the final day of the match, it will be this very knock that they will be looking back to.

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As Jadeja launched the tossed-up delivery from Bashir over long-on for a six, Atherton said: “He should have been doing that before tea.”

Nasser added: “Very odd. Why? Why does it take a tea break for someone to say, right, let's get on with it? Every moment in a Test match, whether it be the moment after tea or the moment before tea is important. If they have England nine down and go to the Lords 1-0 down, they will look at that half hour before tea and say, why does it need the coach to tell us to get on with it?”

Jadeja's sluggish knock continued thereafter, as he managed his next boundary 20 balls later, once again against Bashir, before unleashing two in a row in the next over against Joe Root. Overall, he scored five boundaries and a six in his unbeaten knock, before India declared their second innings on 427 for six.

India set England a 608-run target in Birmingham, which the hosts managed to reduce to 536 at the cost of three wickets. Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep again struck with the new ball, removing the England top three for 50 runs. England will resume their final innings on Day 5 at 72 for three.