India National Cricket Team star player KL Rahul displayed sloppy fielding after the tea break against the England National Cricket Team during the fourth Test match.
KL Rahul’s poor fielding on Day 2 of the fourth Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 gifted free runs to the England National Cricket Team at Old Trafford in Manchester.
KL Rahul’s Sloppy Fielding Hands England Free Runs on a Platter
Being invited to bat first in the match, India batted for around one and a half days and ended up posting 358 runs on the board in 114.1 overs.
Sai Sudharsan (61), Yashasvi Jaiswal (58), Rishabh Pant (54), and KL Rahul (46) emerged as the top performers for the visiting team while Ben Stokes shone with his 5-wicket haul for England.
When it was England’s turn to bat, conditions on offer were not easy, but the English openers got great assistance from Indian bowlers as they were wayward and couldn’t bowl at good lengths.
Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley punished the bad balls and helped England get into a dominant position heading into the tea break. England were at 77/0 with Zak Crawley (33 off 44) and Ben Duckett (43 off 41) unbeaten when the tea break was called.
After players returned from break for the final session of Day 2, Shardul Thakur started the spell, and on the second ball itself, he conceded a boundary.
However, it was not entirely his fault, and KL Rahul played a role in England getting four runs. On the second ball of the 15th over, Shardul Thakur bowled a short-length delivery outside off-stump, shaping away from Zak Crawley.
The English opener poked at it, and the outside edge beat the fielder at gully. KL Rahul, who was at the slip cordon, chased the ball, and it looked like he would stop the ball from hitting the ropes.
However, KL Rahul looked sloppy, put in a dive too early, and his knee got stuck on the ground, leading to the ball going for a four. It was an awful blunder from KL Rahul that handed England free runs.
Watch: KL Rahul’s Embarrassing Fielding Fail Gifts England Runs
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It was rubbish – Ricky Ponting on India’s bowling
Speaking on Sky Sports, legendary Australia skipper Ricky Ponting brutally bashed Indian bowlers and questioned their tactics. He said India displayed rubbish bowling efforts and was surprised to see Anshul Kamboj open the bowling with Jasprit Bumrah. Ricky Ponting elaborated:
“I think we heard it when we were waiting to come out just before the break, what Ravi Shastri said. It was rubbish. They just missed their areas.
“I’m not sure what they were expecting out of the surface, but I mean I was surprised that they actually went with Kamboj ahead of Siraj with the new ball to start with, knowing what impact Siraj has had on this series so far, knowing how important the start of England’s batting innings is, you know that they’re going to come out and play their shots.
“I think they had to go to their best and most experienced bowlers. They got off to a flyer, way too straight the ducat, so many boundaries, square of the wicket on the leg side, you know you can’t bowl there, so they’ve got some work to do now.
“They’ve got to get together at the break and work out how they’re going to bowl to try and slow the scoring down, but then work out how they’re going to get these two out.”
