Hyderabad: Even before they could set foot in India for the marquee five-match Test series, England, from their training camp in Abu Dhabi, suggested that they may open with a spinner alongside a pacer. On the eve of the first Test here, skipper Ben Stokes not only confirmed that idea but boldly proclaimed they’ll be playing just one seamer and three spinners.
The thinking behind England’s bizarre approach, especially to field just one pacer, was the wickets in India would start turning from day one and that was probably the best way to achieve success. They wanted to give India a taste of their own medicine. Although it was a high-risk strategy, just like their ultra-aggressive batting methodology, it could have brought them success had their practitioners been even reasonably good.
Sadly, none of their three frontline spinners - debutant Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and an injured Jack Leach - were nothing more than ordinary. And India, despite gifting wickets every now and then, primed themselves for a massive victory after taking stumps on day two at 421/7 at a packed Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket stadium. With India ahead by 175 runs and the slow-burning pitch offering good help for spinners, the Test could be over as early as the third day.
The prime contributors to India extending their dominance were Yashasvi Jaiswal (80, 74b), KL Rahul (86, 123b) and Ravindra Jadeja (81 batting, 155b) with the first two walking away extremely disappointed after letting slip of glorious opportunities to score a Test century by playing risky shots.
Stokes, realising the mistake he’d committed in opening with Hartley on the opening day, handed the ball to his predecessor Joe Root to kick-start the proceedings. Root may be a part-timer but he’s a more than capable off-spinner, often mixing street-smartness with simple line and lengths balls to outfox the batters. That cunningness was evident when he forced an impatient Jaiswal to play a big shot off the fourth ball of the day, the Yorkshire man completing a good return catch.
Root gave England the start they wanted but then the rest of his spinning colleagues let him down. The inexperience of Hartley (25-0-131-2) and Rehan (23-3-105-1), a 19-year playing just his second Test, was there to be seen and neither spinners were effective on a track that offered good help with its turn and bounce.
Both left-arm orthodox Hartley and leg-spinner Rehan struggled for consistency. Every over contained a full-length ball and a short ball, none spinning or turning alarmingly. It was club-cricket bowling and the likes of Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Jadeja, KS Bharat and Axar Patel feasted on them.
England were also hurt by the left-knee injury to the seasoned Leach that restricted him from bowling long spells. He largely operated in short spells in a bid not to aggravate the bruise and kept things tight whenever he was on. He held his end of the bargain but with Hartley and Rehan dishing out rubbish after rubbish, India accepted them whole-heartedly to chug along smoothly.
England could have been in far deeper trouble had Rahul not departed against the run of play. Nicely clicking through the gears in a responsible innings, Rahul’s eyes lit up when he saw a half-tracker from Rehan. What he didn’t notice was the fielder at deep-wicket. He was the only one manning the ropes on the on-side and Rahul pulled the ball straight down his throat. Stokes, not believing his luck, had his hands to his face while Rahul sat distraught.
Several others like Jaiswal, Gill and Iyer threw way their wickets in pursuit of a glory shot but the overall depth in the batting and England’s atrocious bowling ensured they stood on the verge of another big win unless they implode spectacularly.