England failed to reach 200 in their last five test innings in India (Pic credit – BCCI)
Pink-ball tests are usually quick – but they’re not!
England slipped to a two-day loss to India in Ahmedabad after being beaten for 112 and 81 by home team spinners, with passing through Axar Patel giving figures of 11- 70.
Joe Root’s men are 2-1 down in all four game series after beating a spinning-friendly surface – the Tourist run with 317 runs in the second Test in Chennai.
Nasser Hussain joined Sky Sports Cricket colleagues Ian Ward, Rob Key and Michael Atherton on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast to reflect on the fast-paced game at Narendra Modi Stadium.
Listen to the full chat of the people in the podcast player above or wherever you find your podcasts.
You can also read on for some comments on Nasser ‘s choice on the Pink Ball Test, pitch, England team selection and rotation policy, some inconsistencies from the third umpire and whether Root men can kick back in the Test finally …
Why has England been bothered by spinning fields?
NASSER SAES: Especially on this pitch, where one spins sensibly and the other slides, you lose rhythm of all kinds. That’s what successful test matches of these types do for your mindset.
England looked like scary rabbits in those second innings. I don’t think it was an 81 outdoor field but this was a lot tougher than Chennai – the kind of park I hated.
Axar Patel recorded 11-70 game figures as India won the Pink Ball Test within two days (Pic credit – BCCI)
Axar is absolutely right. He bowls stump to stump and some balls turn and some don’t. Most of his wickets came from balls that didn’t turn, so people will look at that and say ‘why don’t you play for that direct delivery? but it was the former ball.
You could also argue that it was that former park in Chennai when everything was spinning big but it was also the ball that was spinning big on Zak Crawley on the first day here. Every batsman in England thought ‘I have to go for the spinning’ but most did with the one who didn’t spin.
It’s about that side’s mindset now and to be fair to them a lot of the chat about the parks and the umpires has come from outside the dressing room. I have not heard a single English player say that these conditions are unfair.
They have to find a way and Zak Crawley’s fifties were positive. I know there was some of it before spin came on. but it was one of the best half-centuries I have seen from a young English player – rhythm, fluency. If Zak can do it after a game or two out injured, Ollie Pope can do it, Jonny Bairstow can do it.
Nasser Hussain says Zak Crawley’s first half was a positive for England (Pic credit – BCCI)
There is the carrot, 2-2 with India will not yield a bad result at all – although I know that is a long way off when England have not reached 200 in five innings. They need to score in the first innings.
Why didn’t England play Dom Bess’s spin?
NASSER SAES: England lack confidence in their second spinner, so it’s not so much where Bess is but where the hierarchy thinks he is. They cannot be trusted to provide any control and accuracy.
India’s second spinner, Axar, gives them precision – it’s time for you time after time, ball after ball. There is no second spinner in England.
Bess has got 17 wikis at an average of 22 this winter, so it’s weird to leave him out but he doesn’t give Root that accuracy. He was bowling a full throw at the end of the first Test and gaining control.
Moeen Ali came in for the second Test and although he got better as the game progressed he did not bowl particularly well. That’s the problem. India knows that their two spinners are better than their two spinners in England and that is why they have prepared these two playgrounds.
Dom Bess is not giving England the control they need, says Nasser (Pic credit – BCCI)
If it were Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, England would still be in this series, as they would compete with Axar and Ravichandran Ashwin. They do not compete in the spinning sector.
So it’s fair enough to leave Bess out but leave out for a bat. England weren’t going to need the sailor more than what Rob Key describes as a minefield – play the extra baton.
In a Test during the day England were always going to want to play three sailors but, after the second Test in Chennai, India said ‘you can’t play on pitches like this until you re-enter a spinning field ‘.
Does England’s circulation policy work?
NASSER SAES: The fault is not with the selectors or the players, it is with the schedule. Seventeen trials, including part of the Ashes series, two IPLs, and a World T20 are during a year in a global pandemic.
Jos Buttler has been resting for the last three Tests in India (Pic credit – BCCI)
You can’t deal with that as an international cricketer and the selectmen are trying their best to do it. So I can’t say that and go with one when England loses.
What I am saying is that I have been consistent about when I would be circulating. I would have had this Indian series as one of my majors, if you put it in golf terms, as well as the T20 World Cup, and turned it into a 50-over cricket.
Was the third umpiring under par?
NASSER TAKES: It has been inconsistent and that is what has made England end up a bit. It’s a different skill and I hope the ICC educates their umpires on how they can be a third umpire sitting in a hut.
As an umpire on the field you have a gut feeling but as a third umpire you can take as long as you want, you will have different angles.
0:42 Crawley says England were left feeling embarrassed by the third umpire on the first day of the third Test (Pic credit – BCCI)
I’m just saying some of the time they seem to be pretty quick – Ben Stokes catch, Rohit Sharma stumping – and they don’t seem to be looking at all angles. If they think, ‘I’m an umpire, I have to make a quick decision about gut feeling’ I don’t think that ‘s the way forward.
However, let’s be careful not to criticize Indian umpires because as in the summer with English umpires in England, it wasn’t perfect – except for Michael Gough, who was brilliant.
Follow a text report from the fourth Test between India and England in Ahmedabad on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app from 4am on Thursday, March 4th.