England assistant coach Paul Collingwood feels India’s batsmen are coping too much criticism for their failure in the third Test at Leeds and his team is bracing up for a strong fightback from the visitors in the fourth game starting in London on Thursday. India lost the match by an innings and 76 runs last week, leaving the five-match series level at 1-1.
“I thought we bowled tremendously well. It is easy to criticise the Indian batsmen when you are an Indian supporter but there was a lot of movement on the pitch on the first day,” Colingwood said at a virtual media interaction with select Indian journalists.
“…it was kind of conditions with a bit of moisture in the pitch and it was tricky for the batsman, the way we bowled against them. Virat (Kohli) said in his post-match conference, the accuracy and relentness of our bowlers was something that they struggled against and accuracy I thought was fantastic,” he added.
England made a stunning comeback in that game after being thrashed in the second Test at Lord’s by 151 runs.
“Can they (India) bounce back? I am sure we are certainly preparing ourselves for an Indian bounce back. We know that they are a high-quality team and we have always prepared ourselves that they are going to be 100 percent ready for the next battle in new set conditions at the Oval,” added the 45-year-old.
According to Collingwood, who played 68 Tests, saying that this Indian team is like the Australians when it comes to on-field aggression is a “bit harsh”.
“…both sides, they don’t want to give an inch. When you have two countries where cricket means a lot to them, a set of players for whom winning means a lot, then you do have heated exchanges.
“It was a great game to watch and we were on the wrong end of the result, but the level of intensity that we got from the game, the performance level we got from the game were right up there with anything you would see,” he explained.
