The mood in the English dressing room is still “really good” despite India requiring only 152 more for series victory after finishing Day III of the fourth Test at 40 without loss.
“We still massively think we can win this game. That pitch is deteriorating quite a bit now.
“We saw some balls pop up from a good length and some roll (down the ground). Those are good signs for us. It’s (about) 10 chances to take 10 wickets,” off-spinner Shoaib Bashir said.
An energetic, enthusiastic 20-year-old like Bashir is expected to always remain positive while he’s also on a high following his maiden five-wicket haul on Sunday, which helped England take a 46-run first innings lead.
But just as they had done in the previous Test in Rajkot, England handed the advantage over to India once again through very poor application from some of their batsmen. Particularly, Zak Crawley and Jonny Bairstow.
Before the collapse in which England lost their last seven wickets for only 35, they had let the game drift when Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep stitched as many as 76 for the eighth wicket.
Skipper Ben Stokes’ strategy of spreading the field even when India were seven wickets down and trailing by 100-plus runs was baffling. That allowed Jurel and Kuldeep to nudge the ball around for ones in Sunday’s morning session too, which gradually reduced England’s lead.
“Jurel batted really well towards the end. He probably scored a few more runs than we would have liked though,” Bashir agreed.
He, however, maintains they haven’t lost the Test yet. “We saw how (Ravichandran) Ashwin and Jadeja bowled on that wicket and we take huge confidence from it.
“Stokesy and Baz (Brendon McCullum) picked myself and Tommy for a reason. We've just got to go out tomorrow (Monday) and hopefully win a Test match.”