Leeds – On a day when India desperately needed a breakthrough, their frustrations were compounded by Yashasvi Jaiswal, who dropped his fourth catch of the match, this time handing a reprieve to Ben Duckett on 98 runs.
After 32 wicketless overs on Day 5 of the first Test at Headingley, the Indian bowlers, led by Mohammed Siraj, continued to toil without reward. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley looked untroubled, batting with ease as conditions offered little to the bowlers.
Then came the 39th over, and with it, India’s best chance of the morning. Siraj, showing immense energy and aggression, delivered a well-directed bouncer that hurried Duckett into a miscue. The ball flew off a top edge and went straight to deep square leg, where Jaiswal was positioned.
What should have been a turning point slipped—literally—through Jaiswal’s fingers.
“Just this cruel fate that we’re seeing happen here. Jaiswal, you just mentioned, not in gully, he’s deep square leg, but he’s dropped a catch, a difficult one. And against Mohammed Siraj… Should have taken this catch,”
said Sanjay Manjrekar during live commentary.
Duckett, unfazed, completed his century shortly after, rubbing salt into the wound and keeping India wicketless well into the day.
“It’s nerves more than anything else. When you drop catches—and Mohammed Siraj, you’ve got to feel for him… Ben Duckett would have been out, India would have been right back in the game. Wasn’t to be,”
added Manjrekar.
Jaiswal’s Day to Forget – in the Field
This drop marked Jaiswal’s fourth missed catch in the match—three in the first innings, and now this. His visible frustration told the story. After a brief consoling pat from Prasidh Krishna, the young batter-turned-fielder walked back to his position in silence.
Siraj, meanwhile, was visibly livid, his emotions boiling over. Jaiswal, fully aware of the gravity of the moment, kept his distance from the pacer.
As Duckett’s century pushed England further into control, the missed opportunity may come to haunt India. In Test cricket, one dropped chance is all it takes to swing momentum—and Jaiswal unfortunately let one of the biggest moments slip.