Andrew Strauss slams poor England batting again as Joe Root and Ben Stokes are dismissed

Cricket: Kohli reacts angrily to pitch debates

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Andrew Strauss believes need to drag themselves up to a total of 250 as a bare minimum as they reached the tea session at 144-5 in the fourth and final Test of the series against India in Ahmedabad. Despite skipper Joe Root winning the toss, wickets and, despite a mini recovery mission between Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes,  were also dismissed before the tea session.

Axar Patel and Mohammed Siraj got a couple of wickets apiece and it leaves inexperienced pair Dan Lawrence and Ollie Pope at the crease ahead of the final session, though there is more batting to come in the form of wicket keeper Ben Foakes.

Still, Strauss, who is on punditry duties for this series, was critical of the collective batting display and was left frustrated by the inconsistencies.

He believes that 250 is a total within their reach but also the minimum that will make England competitive.

“The truth is the batting hasn’t been good enough. When you look at the filter, each batsman has got in and looked relatively comfortable,” Strauss told Channel 4. 

“The pitch hasn’t been doing that much, there haven’t been great demons in it.

“That return of 144-5 – you’ve probably lost two or three more wickets than you would’ve wanted to at this stage. England are going to have to dig deep. They’ve got a long batting line up due to the selection, but we need to use those extra men.

“We need to get up to 250 as a minimum.”

Former England Women’s cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent agreed. She felt it was a missed opportunity after gaining the upper hand by winning the toss.

“The key for England was to gain the advantage – they got the advantage they were looking for when they won the toss,” Rainford-Brent explained.

“The question for us was how the wicket was going to play – the answer was pretty good.

“There was a bit of seam, bit of movement and they came out of the blocks looking really good and challenged the batters, but we all wanted to know what was going to happen when Axar Patel came into the attack.

“It’s not the position England need to be in. They had to grab this game by the scruff of the neck after winning the toss. We saw the nice recovery between Bairstow and Stokes, but you’re still looking at the score-line thinking ‘a few more wickets, and India are right in the game’.

“Not enough runs on the board, but there is time and this wicket shows that there could be a recovery towards the back end.”

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