Former England spinner Graeme Swann reckons the visitors succumbed to pressure after India dominated the opening day of the fifth Test match at Dharamsala on Thursday. After electing to bat first, England was skittled out for 218 on a batting-friendly pitch as they once suffered a batting collapse.
Zak Crawley top-scored for England with 79 but none of the other batters could make the most of their starts. Kuldeep Yadav bowled a terrific spell as he returned with his fourth five-wicket haul. Yadav bagged 5-72 whereas Ravichandran Ashwin scalped four wickets while playing his 100th Test match.
Meanwhile, England hasn’t been able to capitalize on the advantage in the ongoing series and it has led to their downfall.
“Well you got to look at like I say you have got world-class spinners at the absolute top of their game. So I don’t think it’s a capitulation from England, just succumbing to the pressure maybe, so there’s two ways of looking at it,” Swann told PTI Videos.
Swann hailed the performance of Kuldeep Yadav, who bowled a fine spell to take out England’s top five batters.
“England certainly knows they can do better but for India, you should be championing the fact that you have got an absolute world-beater at the moment, and he is bowling like a dream.”
India ended the opening day at 135-1 and extended their score to 264-1 at lunch on day two, after England’s below-par score. Swann admitted it was a disappointing opening day for the visitors.
“Disappointing day at the end of it, it started so well, with the ball sort of swinging and seaming around so lavishly. To not lose any wickets in that early spell was brilliant from England’s point of view. But then they came up against Kuldeep who was in rich form at the moment and he was just too good for them. At the end of the day, so very disappointing after winning the toss on a good pitch but then finding yourself in such a weak position at the end of day one, it’s been a bad day for England,” Swann added.
On the other hand, Swann added that India will enter the T20 World Cup as one of the favorites given the exposure their players get in the Indian Premier League.
“Look, India is always going to have a massive chance at the T20 World Cup, you know the IPL is the home of T20 cricket basically and you have got some incredible players, it’s about time someone knocked Australia off the world champion perch as well. If it’s not England I hope it’s India,” Swann said.
