While India piled on a mammoth total of 546 for 8 before declaring their first innings against Afghanistan on the second day of the ongoing one-off Test between India and Afghanistan, the Hashamtullah Shahidi led team had their chances during India’s innings. With the Afghanistan captain not taking Decision Review System (DRS) in three such instances in the India’s innings where the TV replays showed the batsman as dismissed, the team lacked the thought process behind taking successful DRS calls.,On Saturday, Indian batsman KL Rahul had edged a Azmatulah Omarzai delivery at the individual score of 16 with the umpire not spotting the edge and Shahdi not option for DRS with Rahul scoring a century. On Sunday morning, Omarzai hit Gill on the pads in the 89th over with on-field umpire adjuring it not out and Shahidi not opting for DRS. Replays showed the ball was going to hit the pads. In the next over, Rishabh Pant seemed to hit a Zia ur Rehman delivery to first slip with Rahmanullah Gurbaz taking the catch with the umpire once again adjuding it not out and Shahidi not taking the review with TV replays later showing Pant hitting the ball. Afghanistan coach Richard Pybus shared that the Afghanistan team was rusty worthy of the DRS calls today and it cost them. “I think the captain’s absolutely reliable and he’s got a couple of guys that he’s speaking to for the decision making process. He’s got the wicket-keeper, who has to give him his alignment. He’s got the fielder at point who needs to give him height. He is reliant on the bowler as well in terms of what the bowler is seeing in front of him. We were exceptionally rusty. It wasn’t clear. I think without throwing anybody under the bus, I think there was a lack of conviction and a decision making, and at the end of the day, the skipper’s got a very short period of time to make those decisions and he’s reliable on one feedback. So we chatted about it afterwards because we were obviously way off the pace with that, and it cost us,” Pybus said in the press conference after the end of the day’s play. Also Read | Sharp turn at 90 kph: Manav Suthar teases India’s spin future in New Chandigarh While Afghanistan had given away 368 runs taking three wickets in 85 overs on Saturday, their bowling unit bowled well in the first hour of the second day followed by pacer Mohammad Saleem completing a six-wicket haul in the match as India declared their first innings at a score of 546 for 8 in 127 overs. Pybus also spoke about how the Afghanistan bowling unit were naive with the ball on the opening day of the Test and how the bowlers started well on Sunday and remained consistent. “We shared a lot of naivety yesterday with the ball. It wasn’t test quality bowling, in any conditions, even on a flat wicket against high quality players. You know, we weren’t bowling channels, we were not building pressure. So we had a conversation around that, and we were much better today, because you rightly pointed out. Just consistent, I thought we started really well. We’ve still got some work to do on our review process. You know, but we were really good. And then Saleem came on and was absolutely outstanding,” added the coach. Saleem became the first Afghanistan pacer to take a five-wicket haul against India in a Test match for The pair, who belongs to the Baghlan province in Afghanistan, was playing in his first match for Afghanistan after more than two years. He had earlier made his Test debut against Bangladesh in 2024. Pybus showed praise on Saleem’s effort and shared how the pacer held his length to remain consistent. “What I enjoyed about him was his consistency today. He’s not a 145-150kph bowler. He’s super consistent. Yesterday, we were just a bit way off from test level bowling. It’s just that consistency. He was just fantastic, and his bowling just held a length. And I think if you hold a length, you’re in the game the whole time,” said Pybus.
‘We were exceptionally rusty. It wasn’t…’: AFG coach Pybus on DRS blunders
