Former England fast bowler Steven Finn made a stunning revelation that the boundary rope were way ahead of their usual position during the second Test match against England. With social media users talking about the considerably shorter boundaries at Edgbaston, Finn guessed that the move has a direct connection with the ‘Bazball’ approach. Finn went on to say that England have the knack of winning the toss and chasing in the fourth innings – a move that is assisted heavily by the shorter boundaries.

“So we’re here at Edgbaston. I stood right by the boundary rope, which is a considerable way in from where you may anticipate for a normal Test match,” Finn said on BBC’s broadcast.

“England and their propensity to want to win the toss, bowl first and chase in the last innings maybe is the reason why those boundaries have come so far in.”

Meanwhile, legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar was in awe of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Shubman Gill for their impressive knocks on the opening day of the second Test against England at Edgbaston that pushed them to 310/5 at stumps.

Under overcast skies at the toss, an unchanged England side had no hesitation in choosing to bowl first. In contrast, India made three changes to their lineup from the Leeds Test and shuffled key positions in search of greater batting depth – a strategy that was tested right from the opening day.

Despite a brief evening collapse, Gill anchored the innings with a composed, unbeaten 114, forging a crucial unbroken 99-run stand with Ravindra Jadeja (41*) to steady the ship and take India to stumps without further loss.

However, it was Jaiswal’s fluent knock that set the tone in a morning session of contrasting phases after India lost KL Rahul early. England’s new-ball bowlers, particularly Chris Woakes, extracted movement and extra bounce early on, but managed just one wicket for their efforts. Jaiswal played a knock of 87 and was involved in two crucial 50-plus partnerships with Karun Nair and Gill.

Taking to X Tendulkar wrote, “@ybj_19 set the tone from ball one. He was positive, fearless and smartly aggressive. @ShubmanGill was cool as ever, calm under pressure, solid in defence and in total control. Classy knocks from both. Well played, boys!”

(With IANS inputs)