Birmingham [UK], July 3 : Former cricketers Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton lampooned England's top order for an early collapse courtesy of Indian quicks Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj's scorching spells in the final session on Day 2 of the second Test at Edgbaston on Thursday.
Akash and Siraj bowled in tandem and made early inroads in the final hour of the third session. Akash ran rampant in the third over and forced a thick outside-edge from Ben Duckett, which flew straight to captain Shubman Gill, stationed at third slip, forcing the southpaw to return for a five-ball duck.
On the next delivery, Ollie Pope fell for a golden duck after coming forward to flick, but gave away a thick leading edge to KL Rahul at second slip, who fumbled initially but got hold of the ball on the second chance. With the floodgates opened, Siraj outfoxed Zak Crawley (19) by luring a thick edge from the English opener's loose shot, which flew to Karun Nair at the first slip.
Hussain was baffled by England's top three approach on Edgbaston's flat surface when the ball was slightly swinging and said on Sky Sports, "As an England top-order batter, you should be able to cope with this. The pitch is flat, and the ball is just swinging a bit. There's no need to waft outside the off stump. Back your defence as well!"
With England reeling at 25/3 in reply to India's daunting 587, Harry Brook and Joe Root stitched a comeback to bring the hosts back into the game. While Root exuded confidence, Brook boasted aggression. He tried to place the ball between the slips but got thoroughly beaten by Akash and almost gave away an edge in the process.
The approach from Brook didn't sit well with Atherton, who didn't mince his words while commenting on the 26-year-old's approach, "Brook has got to get his batting head on here. He was trying to run that down [towards third man] with two slips in place. Ridiculous."
Brook and Root managed to see off the day unbeaten on 30 and 18 as England managed to put 77/3 on the board, still trailing by 510 runs after the end of the second day's play.