"Younger Players Were A Little Careless": Ex-India Selector On Reason Behind Edgbaston Loss Against England

Indian cricket team suffered a demoralising loss to England in the fifth rescheduled Test in Edgbaston. Despite setting a huge target of 378 for England in the fourth innings, they could not defend it. While players like Rishabh Pant and Cheteshwar Pujara played well, the performances of players like Shubmann Gill, Shreyas Iyer among others left a lot to be desired. Former Indian cricket team player and ex-BCCI selector Jatin Paranjape delved into the areas where India fell short in the loss.

"There were two or three pieces in the game where India should have done better. In Test matches, third innings are very important and I thought India were diffident and timid in their third innings. They should have come out with more purpose. I think it falls upon the younger players to stand up and be counted in such times. A lot of the youngsters have got many chances. These are the times to really grind it out play half a session, a full session, try and think like a captain when you are at the crease," the former India player and selector told senior sports journalist Jamie Alter in an interview.

"These are opportunities for them to really digest what the opportunity areas in front of them are and learn from it. Third innings are very tense, very crucial in a match like this and that is where I think England turned it around with Anderson getting Gill. That was a big wicket, the turning point of the game. The way Gill was batting in the first innings, if he had batted like that for 45 minutes, he would have scored 40 runs so imagine India 50 for no loss … it would have been a different ball game.

"I daresay a couple of the younger players were a little careless in their approach and that to me is a bit worrying. It could be