Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra questioned India’s spinners after host lost the first Test match against England by 28 runs at Hyderabad on Sunday. While Jasprit Bumrah was brilliant in the second essay, India spinners could not deliver.
Bumrah registered impressive figures of 4-41 in the second dig but the Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel failed to create an impact.
Bumrah got the ball to reverse as he was right on the money. The Indian gun fast bowler was able to get rid of Duckett with a delivery coming into the left-hander. Subsequently, Bumrah plumbed Joe Root in front of the wickets.
In the later stage of the day, Bumrah also accounted for Rehan Ahmed. The Indian spearhead ended Ollie Pope’s marathon knock of 196 as he bamboozled him with a slower ball.
Jasprit Bumrah said on his YouTube Channel, “Bumrah picked up four wickets. It was the fourth day of a Test match in India where the talk was about the turn, there your fast bowler picked up four wickets, and six wickets in the entire match. You had superior spin but the opposing spinners took 18 Indian wickets and the Indian spinners could take only 14 wickets.”
“In the second innings, the Indian spinners could pick up only six wickets. That was a bit of a problem in my opinion. Jasprit Bumrah is phenomenal, there is no doubt about that, but what are the others doing – that’s a question,” the former India opener added.
On the other hand, the renowned commentator reckons India thought 230 was not a big score. England posted a huge score of 420 runs in the second innings after Ollie Pope scored a majestic knock of 196 but Indian batters could not deliver.
“The Indian team were thinking that 230 is not that big a score. That’s why, they allowed singles to be taken easily. The mid-on and mid-off were back and everyone was waiting for a wicket to fall. They waited before taking the new ball as well.”
“The opposing team showed that they can take you on. They would think that if they had played better in the first innings, they could have troubled India even more. They did this after conceding a lead of 190 runs.”
The second Test match between India and England will be played at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam from 2nd February.
