Indian medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar feels he and his bowling colleagues need to adopt a “patient” approach on a lifeless Trent Bridge wicket if the visitors want to bowl England out twice and win the the first cricket Test here.
The Trent Bridge pitch has come for some flak from many quarters for its flat nature and Bhuvneshwar too was of the view that Indian bowlers will have to produce a disciplined performance to make in roads into the English batting line-up.
“We cannot do much about the pitch except be patient. We need to keep bowling wicket to wicket and it is more like an Indian pitch. We have enough experience of playing at home so we know what we need to do,” Bhuvneshwar said at the press conference after the second day’s play today.
“The pitch might not change too much but it might take some turn later on. We are confident of bowling England out and we have to do that because we want to win this match,” he said.
The English bowlers had to toil hard for nearly two days to bowl India out as Bhuvneshwar and Mohammed Shami shared a stunning rearguard 111-run last wicket partnership to frustrate the hosts.
“I don’t think England bowled badly. They put enough pressure on us, tried different things and set up different fielding positions. It is the pitch, you need to do different things when it behaves like this. Also, if last wicket yields a 100-run partnership then the bowlers will get tired and frustrated. So they were doing their bit and we were doing our bit,” said Bhuvneshwar who made 58, his maiden Test fifty to help India reach a commendable 457 in their first innings.
India, however, were in a spot of bother at 346 for nine at one stage before Bhuvneshwar and Shami joined hands to bail the visitors out.