Kolkata: Up until he ran out of luck, Harry Brook had a wonderful existence in Headingley. To be rejected with one run left to 100 on a pitch where one has played cricket all their life is the worst possible pain. However, it is also true that Brook had no right to survive as long as he did. At two very peculiar moments throughout the day, India's poor catching granted him two lives. Both were in positions behind the wicket, between the wicketkeeper and the gully, where you are more likely to make these catches. However, this was also a bizarre day in which some great catches were made and simple catches were missed. However, the harm is not reduced in the slightest.

The missed catches will be the most painful at the conclusion of the Test, when each hour of play will be scrutinized and dissected. This is due to the fact that Sunday at Leeds was the worst possible day to miss catches, as it was the first day of a five-game Test series that saw England perspire after scoring a first-innings total large enough to make them perspire. Given the context of England's first innings chase, both opportunities off Brook should have been held, both with crucial spacing.

The first happened in the 72nd over, when Ravindra Jadeja was bowling. The delivery was flighted and maintained its line, and Brook managed to edge it as he attempted to defend his front foot. Although the bounce was selective, these are catches that must be made at this stage. Brook was let off because Pant had tough and high hands. The first lesson in wicket keeping to spinners is to rise as late as possible so that the eye level follows the ball's motion. Because Jadeja tends to bowl faster through the air when the ball is not gripping as well as in India, the timing of the wicketkeeper's rise is twice as critical. Pant, who was never really a stickler for the fundamentals, found himself in a horrible position for the edge.

At that time, Brook was at 46. Brook was on 80 when he was dropped again. He had earlier hit 73 runs with Jamie Smith, effectively neutralized Jasprit Bumrah, and pursued Mohammed Siraj to force swift bowling switches. After being called, Bumrah once more bowled at the correct length. Feeling that Brook was attempting to stay back in his crease, Bumrah threw a short of length delivery, and Brook, almost instinctively, simply extended his bat at it. The ball came off the bat, but Jaiswal missed the catch at gully, increasing the total number of missed opportunities off Bumrah to four. And because the ball was moving at shoulder level, this was likely the simplest thing to do.

In essence, those two lives enabled Brook to lead England from 300/5 to 398/7 and score 53 additional runs. Pant may have captured Brook, but who knows what kind of advantage India would have had? The Indian field only appeared clever twice: when Brook was eventually caught at deep backward square leg and when Sai Sudharsan caught Smith with a beautiful combo catch. But Jadeja made that grab, which was a welcome change from the shock of watching him ground Ben Duckett at backward point on Sunday. Jadeja can throw the ball back to Sudharsan while crossing the boundary in his sleep, so it would be unfair to probably judge everyone by his standard.

Jaiswal was at the conclusion of two of the four catches that occurred at the slip, which also included Pope and Brook. At locations where the ball is swinging with a fair degree of carry, the likelihood of edges to the slip cordon rises. Additionally, since the decibel level is almost always lower than in India, it is somewhat simpler to focus on slip catching when outside the country. This should make it even harder for India to accept that Pope and Brook, who were centurion and almost centurion in England's innings, were partially there because of the lives given to them.

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