IND vs ENG 5th Test, Day 4: Hanuma Vihari drops in form Jonny Bairstow; Twitter furious on India’s new no. 3

Edgbaston| India’s new no. 3 and the hero of Sydney, has had a Test match that he will like to forget as soon as possible. With Rohit Sharma out of the final Test match, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubhman Gill opened the innings with Hanuma Vihari to bat at no.3. Hanuma Vihari who is having a very dismal run on the international stage couldn’t make any notable contribution to the final Test match which will decide the series.

Vihari only score 31 off 94 deliveries that he faced in both innings. Vihari first burst onto the international stage when he made his Test debut against England at Kennington Oval in 2018. Vihari had a pretty decent run in that series and followed it up with a few good performances when India traveled to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but after that, he has struggled to make any notable contributions for India both in home and away conditions.

With half of the Indian team injured and Virat Kohli leaving after the first Test match in the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Vihari was once again into the Indian Test side and what he did in Sydney with Ashwin at the other end is something that will go down in the history books. With a torn hamstring Hanuma battled the Australian bowlers for 42 overs alongside Ashwin who had a sore back and could barely stretch.

When the duo of Alex Lees and Zack Crawley walked in, everybody felt that they are just meager walkovers and will be very easy to dismiss. But little did anyone know what Lees and Crawley were looking to do, the English batsmen were quick to attack and did not give any kind of respite to India’s dominant pace battery. Both of them put a 100-run stand. India scalped three quick wickets, but the in-form Bairstow and Root steadied England’s ship. With Siraj operating, Bairstow nicked one ball which flew to Vihari at third slip and he completely lost sight of it and missed it.

Here is how Twitter reacted:

England Playing XI: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Sam Billings, Matty Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson

India Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah