Former Indian cricketer Farokh Engineer has strongly criticized Zak Crawley and the England team for what he described as ‘cheating’ during the final moments of Day 3 at Lord’s. The 87-year-old, who was present at the venue on Saturday, did not hold back in his assessment, calling out England’s tactics and taking a dig at their Bazball approach.
With India having bowled England out for 387 and matching them run-for-run in their own innings, the hosts came out to bat in the final six minutes of the day. However, the brief session turned more theatrical than competitive. Crawley was at the centre of controversy, he repeatedly delayed taking strike, pulled away from his stance twice, and then called for the physio after being struck on the glove.
These actions disrupted the flow of play and frustrated the Indian players, who lost their cool as tempers flared. Engineer slammed England’s end-of-day strategy and dismissed it as unsporting, saying it contradicted the spirit of the game that Bazball claims to keep it.
“English people will call it professionalism, but I would call it cheating. That was time-wasting tactics. They did not want to face another over, which was very obvious. He could have been discreet about it, but he made it look so obvious. That wasn’t very fair. But who knows? I don’t think our batsmen would have done such a blatant thing. The headline is it’s not cricket,” said Engineer via RevSportz.
The former wicketkeeper, who played county cricket for Lancashire and has an in-depth understanding of English conditions, also took aim at the Ben Stokes-led side’s Bazball approach in the ongoing series, suggesting it lacks effectiveness against top teams like India.
“This Bazball is all bundlebaz. They can do Bazball against Bangladesh or Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Against India, they cannot do that, and I have always said that in the past. I wish they had adopted Bazball (during my playing days), we would have won the series by now,” Engineer said.
It was somewhat ironic coming from Engineer, who himself was known for playing aggressive cricket. England, often hailed as trend-setters under Brendon McCullum’s coaching, posted a run rate of just 3.44 in their first innings. On the entirety of Day 1, they managed only 241 runs, their lowest score in a day since the former New Zealander took charge.
“It’s even stevens at the moment. If we had got a couple of wickets by close of play today, I would have put ourselves as firm favorites. Bumrah has still got a new ball in his hand. Akash Deep is yet to bowl. Let’s first take 3-4 wickets before lunch on Day 4, and we are very capable of doing that,” the ex-India star concluded.
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