- By Himanshu Badola
- Fri, 07 Jul 2023 04:14 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
JE Sports Desk: Former England captain Nasser Hussain has slammed Ben Stokes and Co for a horrible fielding display on the opening day of the third Ashes Test against Australia at Headingley on Thursday.
The hosts have been going through fielding woes in the ongoing Ashes series having already cost them the Edgbaston Test where they dropped six catches and a stumping chance missed by wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow.
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"It's like a virus, it spreads through the team," Hussain told Sky Sports Cricket. "I'm not just talking about in a day, it's in a series - you lose it, you get hard hands."
The story continued at Lord's where five more catching chances went begging as the visitors took a 2-0 lead in the series.
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"The greatest catchers I played with were Mark Waugh and Nick Knight, and they had soft hands. Jonny Bairstow will know he should be taking that, Joe Root will know he should be taking that - these are not difficult chances, but now it's spreading like a virus."
"You're thinking 'don't come to me, don't come to me', when in the field you should be wanting every ball to come to you."
At Headingley, Bairstow was once again under the scanner as he dropped the catches of Steve Smith and Travis Head, while Joe Root dropped Mitchell Marsh very early when he was batting on 12 but then went on to score 118.
Root also missed out on a catch of Alex Carey but managed to hold on to the next one as the tally rises to 10 dropped catches so far.
Australia ended up with a score of 263, which could have been a lot less if England had capitalised on the chances early in the innings.
On the other hand, pace bowler Mark Wood put up a show with the ball on his return to the Test side as he bagged the fourth five-wicket haul of his Test career.