England assistant coach Paul Collingwood on Thursday heaped praise on debutant Sarfaraz Khan, whose aggressive 62 allowed India to score 326 for five on day one of the third Test.
Collingwood said Sarfaraz showed a "lot of courage to play like that" after the right-handed batter smashed his fifty off 48 balls, the joint fastest by an Indian on debut.
“He came out and batted really well. We kept attacking fields to him. He likes to be a strokemaker and play his shots,” Collingwood told the media after stumps in Rajkot.
“I thought Ben (Stokes) wanted to keep attacking fields so we could create a chance. And fairplay to him (Sarfaraz), he had the courage to go over the top on a few occasions,” Collingwood added.
“He sweeps really well and put the bowlers under pressure. On debut, it take as a lot of courage to come out and play like that. I guess from his point of view, it was a shame to get run out the way he did. You can see why he has got a pretty good first-class average — he looks a decent player,” he continued.
Collingwood said though England exploited the early conditions well, it was a toil for the remainder of the day as the ball went soft and the pitch did not have much for the bowlers.
“It was a great start, there was a bit of movement around this morning, it seemed a bit cooler, a bit of moisture on the ground so the ball nipped around a bit. Jimmy and Woody were exceptional. As the ball gets softer, it's doing less,” he said.
“The spinners toiled away all day with little reward but when you've got quality batters like they have in the India team, they're always going to get a response.
“The two guys who got hundreds and Sarfaraz at the end played exceptionally well. We threw everything at them, in terms of plans and field positions,” he added.
The former England batter said Stokes tried to manoeuvre the field given the lack of support from the pitch while also defended Joe Root, whose dropped catch of Rohit Sharma (131) proved costly.
“Nobody ever wants to drop catches and the beauty about the game is you've got to try to make more opportunities,” Collingwood said.
“That's what Stokesy with his field placings and the bowlers did, trying to work out if they could change the mentality of the batters. On wickets that aren't doing too much, you've got to take risks to try create chances,” he added.
Collingwood said despite India being in a strong position after the end of the first day, the mood in the English camp remains upbeat.
“The mood's very upbeat. It doesn't generally change no matter what day we have. We all realise that however many runs India get, we're going to go out there pretty positively with the bat,” he said.
“If we have to chase runs on this pitch, it's a very fast outfield and we're good at chasing,” Collingwood added.
