Ishant to miss fourth Test, says Dhoni

Southampton, July 31 (IANS) Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni Thursday confirmed that India's hero in the historic win at Lord's, Ishant Sharma, who was ruled out from the third Test, will miss the crucial fourth Test at Manchester starting Aug 7.

Ishant was a last minute omission in the third Test that India lost by 266 runs at the Rose Bowl here Thursday, enabling the hosts in levelling the five-match series 1-1.

The injured pacer was replaced by debutant Pankaj Singh, who failed to pick up even a single wicket in the 47 overs he bowled in both the innings.

"Definitely he won't be fit for the next game," Dhoni said during the post-match presentation. 

"Never really had a discussion with our physio, but as of now he won't be available for the fourth Test match."

England's part-time spinner Moeen Ali was the hero of the day picking up his maiden six-wicket haul but Dhoni put the blame on some poor batting for India's downfall.

"I don't think we played good cricket over here but at the same time I think we played the fast bowlers well," Dhoni said. 

"Moeen, I think, bowled well but, still, we let him bowl well. It is very important to be positive against the spinner, especially when there is not much on offer. I think he bowled very good lines. If you keep defending, one odd ball will turn because there is considerable amount of wear and tear on the wicket."

"There were quite a few (soft dismissals), the phase where Jinks (Rahane) got out, a couple of other wickets that fell, that really had a big impact on the game. It was not only that half an hour, I think even last night, the last session really had a big impact on the game because we lost quite a few wickets, and quite a few of them were quite soft dismissals, and if we were in a good position last night, not losing those two or three wickets, definitely then you look at it in a different way," said the Indian captain.