Thaindian News

London, July 26 (IANS) Former England captain Nasser Hussain said India do not value their World No.1 Test status and came underprepared for the Lord’s Test which they lost by 196 runs.

“I am so pleased that England won because they set the perfect template on how you should prepare for and then perform in a very important game of Test cricket,” Hussain said.

“India were exactly the opposite. They just turned up with totally inadequate preparation and expected everything to be alright on the night. Do they not value their status as the best Test team in the world? They did not seem to here,” the Daily Mail quoted Hussain as saying.

India’s pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tedulkar were playing a Test after six months. They missed the series against the West Indies. There was only a three-day warm-up match against Somerset before the first Test. Zaheer strained his hamstring on the first day and did not bowl for the rest of the match.

Hussain said England were better prepared for the important series.

“Everything that England have done this summer has been geared towards making sure their players are as ready as possible for this Test series, including Andrew Strauss playing at Taunton and Stuart Broad playing for Notts,” he said.

“In contrast, India expected their top strike bowler in Zaheer Khan and their premier batsman in Sachin Tendulkar to rock up without playing a Test since January and just have a bit of a hit and giggle against Somerset before the big one. They did not help themselves,” he said.

Hussain said the Indian cricket board had not planned well for the series.

“India simply were not ready in this game. India have real issues. Zaheer is injured, quite probably because his body was not right for this game, and it is difficult to see how he can play in the second Test,” he said.

“After that match, India just have a two-day game at Northants to get ready for the third Test, when they will again have little opportunity to get themselves right for the second half of the series. What’s going on with them?” he asked.

Hussain also criticised India for not using the Decision Review System for lbws.

“For us to have a halfway house, mish-mash of a decision review system in this series has been driven by India and frankly it’s confusing and pathetic. Either we have the full system or we don’t use it at all. Let’s not say we can have HotSpot because India like it but we can’t have Hawk-Eye because they don’t,” he said.