England played outstanding cricket in the first Test to stage a comeback and script a historic win. They have done themselves a huge favour by going 1-0 up in the five-match series. It is quite exciting to see that Shoaib Bashir is going to make his Test debut in Visakhapatnam. I am not sure whether his inclusion is to do with injury to Jack Leach or not, but it is still a terrific opportunity for the 20-year-old spinner.
Bashir has played only a handful of first-class games, but he will be happy to be playing on a surface that is similar to where he plays his cricket, in Taunton. Of late, the pitches over there have been conducive to spin and Bashir is used to bowling on turning pitches. The most striking feature about Bashir is his height. I think he is 6 feet and 4 inches and that really helps when you are an off spinner. It is quite evident from the selection of slow bowlers like Tom Hartley and Bashir that England are looking for tall bowlers who can hit the surface hard and get variable bounce and turn. It is the hardest spin to face, in my view, as a batter when some are turning and some are not, particularly, when it is coming from a great height. The bounce makes it more challenging for the batter. I think England zeroed in on such tall spin bowlers who can get success in any conditions, but particularly in India. We will have to wait and see whether this is a good selection or not but obviously you can see the rationale behind the selection. It is a type of selection that underpins the management’s ethos as well. I cannot think of many incidents in the past where a guy who has just played 6 first-class games, a rookie, has been included in the Test playing 11 in India. I like this brave move.
It also sheds light on what Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes bring with them as leaders. This reflects on the environment of the side. The management structure of Stokes and McCullum is incredibly special. Look at someone like Hartley. He was bashed for a first-ball six. Stokes stuck with him. The environment in the team fostered by England management is getting the best out of the players. Perhaps in previous setups, good players shrunk under pressure because the environment did not support them that well. Hartley is a very good example of how Stokes managed him on the pitch in his debut Test. Stokes’ management and attitude were a big reason behind the success of Hartley in the Hyderabad match. Hopefully, Bashir too gets a great debut, from England’s point of view. I wish Bashir the best of luck for what could possibly be a fantastic career.
James Anderson comes back to the XI and replaces Mark Wood. I think that is a very good selection since you have got an inexperienced spin attack in the form of Rehan Ahmed, Hartley and Bashir. You need Anderson’s experience out there. Stokes will be needing someone like Anderson to turn to if things are not going England’s way in a session. Surely, Joe Root is also there with his more-than-handful off-breaks. I am not sure about the nature of the outfield in Vizag. If it is quite rough, then you will see Anderson use revere-swing. He will come into the game big time if the reverse swing is on offer. England’s batting too look good to me for the 2nd Test.
Ollie Pope deserves all the praise that he is getting for the knock he played in the 2nd innings of Hyderabad Test. Tom Hartley deservingly got credit for his brilliance with the ball in 2nd innings, but it was Pope who set things up with his brilliance wi th the bat.
On the other hand, India do not look in good shape. You must feel for the home team a little bit as they started the series without Virat Kohli or Mohammed Shami. Now, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have been injured. They now must probably get either Rajat Patidar or Sarfaraz Khan in place of Rahul. I will go with Patidar because he was the original selection. I also feel he is a good player of both pace and spin bowling. I know Sarfaraz has had a good run in domestic cricket and averages around 69 with the bat in first-class but I believe Patidar could be a better pick for his dominance against both spin and pace. The big concern for India is the form of Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill.
As I have said in my previous articles, I maintain that Gill should be opening rather than batting at No 3. Gill needs to adapt his game against spinners. He should look to find gaps and rotate the strike which might help him to get the pressure off him. Rohit too under some stress to score big runs. The huge challenge is that without Kohli, Rahul and Jadeja, this injury-hit Indian batting lineup batting need to score the big runs. As far as bowling is concerned, I would probably leave out Mohammed Siraj to get both Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav in, if it is a rank turner. R Ashwin, Axar Patel will be the other spin options. Sundar adds to the batting depth too. Unless you feel that Siraj is required to do the hard yards and will bowl heaps of overs, there is no point playing him. Having said that, I maintain that the pitches which are going to turn dramatically from ball 1 will cause more harm to India than England.
As I said earlier, pitches that deteriorate gradually will suit India more than the ones where the turn and bounce is there from day 1. I think the second kind of wickets will bring a very inexperienced spin attack from England into the game. All eyes will be on conditions, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It has been a terrific start for England. The 2nd Test is going to test India’s resolve and bench strength. But as we have seen of India in the recent past, they know how to make a comeback despite losing first Test.
I am expecting India to put up a much better performance in Vizag. At the same time, they must take some positives from the first Test. They dominated the first half of the match. Take that outstanding innings from Pope out and the result could have been different. The way Pope batted; he will be a concern for India. The sweeps and reverse-sweeps did the trick for him. In modern day cricket, sweeps and reverse-sweeps are no longer the shots to survice against the spin if you do not have the defensive technique to handle the turn and bounce. Today, sweeps are very authoritative shots. It is more of an aggressive move and not a forced shot due to lack of defensive technique. I think England are going to continue playing them in this series and it will be fascinating to see how Ashwin and Co stop them.
