Rishabh Pant’s scintillating knock of 146 may have put him on the back foot but England assistant coach Paul Collingwood said the home team is not “intimidating” and will return in the rescheduled fifth Test here.
when came out to bat India Pant, who had scored 98 for 5 wickets, played a swashbuckling innings against England and took India to a challenging 338 for 7 at stumps on Friday. His brilliant innings of 111 balls had 19 fours and four sixes.
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But Collingwood said England is not going to be intimidated by India’s scintillating performance as they are used to chasing big in the fourth innings in recent times.
“I don’t think our backs were against the wall for too long, but the way Pant played, salutes to him. When you’re up against world-class players, they can do world-class things,” Collingwood was quoted as saying by media here after the first day’s play.
“We are not afraid of what we have to chase in the fourth innings. The way we played the three matches against New Zealand, we are not overwhelmed by what the opposition is going to get in the first innings.”
England chased down 250-plus totals on three occasions in their 3–0 series win over New Zealand in the fourth innings.
England seem to have adopted an aggressive brand of cricket under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, which has swept New Zealand aside.
“We are not playing traditional Test cricket. Collingwood, who played 68 Tests for England, said, “We are trying to be as aggressive as possible and try to take wickets with the fielding.
“We are not always trying to stop the flow and keep the run rate down. We want to be on the more aggressive side of the line. We can be happy with this day’s work and getting them for anything under 360-370 would be a good result for us.
He said the manner in which the three victories over the Black Caps, England batting second on all three occasions, had an effect in Stokes’ decision to field first against India.
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