‘I Wouldn’t Have Declared’: Former Captain Unhappy with England’s Declaration in Edgbaston Test – News18

England dominated the proceedings on the opening day of the first Ashes Test against Australia at Edgbaston. Opener Zak Crawley played an impressive knock of 61 runs for his team before falling prey to Scott Boland. It was then Joe Root’s turn to show his batting exploits as he went on to score 118 runs in 152 balls. He remained unbeaten for 118 included and had smashed seven boundaries and four sixes during his stay in the middle. On the other hand, Jonny Bairstow stepped up on the first day as well with his 78 runs, hitting an impressive 12 boundaries.

Meanwhile, the Australian bowlers had a taste of England’s ‘Bazball’ in the first innings. But a brilliant bowling performance from Nathon Lyon brought the Aussies back into the game. The Ace off-spinner took four wickets in his 29-over spell.

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But then occurred the most surprising event of the day. Ben Stokes & Co declared their innings at 393/8 with close to 10 overs left in the first day’s play. The decision of the English think tank left the experts divided. Former captain Kevin Pietersen was of the opinion that the hosts should have gone for more runs as centurion Joe Root was still batting.

“I wouldn’t have declared,” Kevin Pietersen said while speaking on Sky Sports.

The former captain expected to go for a bigger tally of runs before declaring the innings. The former England cricketer emphasised that the hosts should have looked to score cross the 400-run mark to have a psychological advantage He cited the example of India’s rescheduled test against England in 2022. India lost the game despite scoring 416 runs.

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“We will find out if it’s the right thing to have done. I always got told 400, get to 400, and 450 in the first innings of a test match. It’s psychological. Maybe I am being too critical, I don’t know, we will see,” Pietersen added.

While the decision could potentially be a debatable one, England did produce a breathtaking batting performance on the first day of the Edgbaston Test. Everything shall now rest upon the English bowlers on Day 2 to make sure that they do not throw away this wonderful start as Australia would be looking forward to getting a healthy lead early in the game.