Kevin Pietersen criticised Rohit Sharma‘s captaincy early on day four of the second Test match between India and England, labelling his field placements “negative” as England looked to chase 399 in the final innings.

Pietersen’s comments came on TV commentary after nightwatch Rehan Ahmed hit two consecutive fours in the fourth over of the morning off Axar Patel. Zak Crawley had also hit a four off the final ball of the previous over to make it three boundaries in a row.

“Have a look at the captaincy from Rohit Sharma,” Pietersen said. “Why is long on back? Why is mid off back? Why be so defensive straight away when England still need way over 300 runs to win this Test match? Keep Rehan Ahmed on strike, he’s hit two fours yes but he should have been out first ball of the day. The first boundary he did hit this morning wasn’t convincing at all, he’s just tipped it away now to a wide mid on.

“Ben Stokes yesterday was brilliant at the start, he made a mistake when he allowed manipulation of the field by batters picking up singles. He decided no way I’m going to let the batter go and what happened? He broke the partnership and he got wickets, he made things happen. I don’t like how negative this is.”

Rehan was eventually out, LBW to Axar Patel, after half an hour of play in the morning session, having put on 23 runs. England quickly fell to 154-4 when Ollie Pope and Joe Root were both dismissed within three overs of each other.

However, following Root’s dismissal where he skied a ball from R Ashwin to Patel at backward point attempting a slog, Pietersen once again criticised Rohit’s field placements.

The field was up so it invited Joe Root to go down the ground,” said Pietersen. “Here again, have a look at this field, everybody is out on the boundary. Why is everybody out on the boundary? England still need 245 to win – there’s Bairstow and there’s Stokes. India have an opportunity here, Rohit Sharma has an opportunity here to just say, ‘Okay, Zak Crawley, are you going to still go? Are you still going to take a risk?’

“This is what Root did. Look at the field. Don’t look at the catch. Look where mid off is, look where mid on is. It invited Joe Root to go down the ground. Be brave, Rohit Sharma: be very, very brave. Bring mid on up, bring mid off up and say to these batters, keep going.”

India set England 399 runs to win the second Test match after their third innings. If they successfully defend the total, they will level the series back to level at 1-1 after England’s comeback win in Hyderabad. England have had some memorable successes batting in the fourth innings since Stokes took over the captaincy. They chased 378 against India at Edgbaston and lost only three wickets in the process. In the Stokes-McCullum era they’ve successfully chased 250-plus scores on five occasions.

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