During the T20 World Cup in September, I expressed my worry (as a fan) regarding England's inability to play spin; but even the most dedicated supporter would have to agree that the last 18 overs of the second day of the first test in Ahmedabad was simply unacceptable.
Fans all over the UK set their alarms at 3.50am on Thursday morning, made a cup of tea and settled in front of the TV in anticipation of the start of a evenly-matched test series against India. By tea on the first day however, doubts would have been setting in as to whether this series would be as evenly-matched as expected; but by stumps on the second day, their fears were confirmed...this series has the potential to be extremely one-sided.
Why? To quote myself from a previous post; "England cannot play spin". But this isn't the only reason why England are struggling in the sub-continent, the other reason is poor selection choices.
From bad to worse
It started badly for England. The toss in India is key, and unfortunately, Alastair Cook called wrong and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had no hesitation in electing to bat on what can only be described as an absolute feather-bed.
Things got worse when the team sheet was announced. One specialist spinner and three-seamers. In India? I cannot hide my frustration here. Graham Gooch and Andrew Flower are experienced, skilled and intelligent batsmen, surely they know there is only one type bowling that is effective in the sub-continent. When you tour abroad, the first thing you do is look at how the opposition go about their cricket at home. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all play a minimum of three spinners and, at most, two seamers. This is no coincidence. Wickets in this part of the world offer nothing to the seamer; no conventional swing, no reverse swing, no seam, no pace, no carry. Spinners prevail and there is no better example than India's first innings scorecard in this test:
7 of the 8 wickets fell to "spin". I put spin in inverted commas because Patel and Pietersen are part-timers at best. However, take nothing away from Graeme Swann's efforts, he bowled beautifully and perhaps deserved more than his 5-fer.
My view: play Panesar. I think everyone is in agreement there. But Bresnan has to make way. He simply offers nothing in these conditions. Sehwag hitting him for six back over his head in the first morning of a test series just shouldn't happen. The fact that there were 68 overs between his spells is a clear message that Alastair Cook admits the wrong decision was made at selection. You need added extras as a seam bowler to be effective in India; namely height and pace or guile. Broad and Anderson have this, as does Finn, Bresnan does not.
Poor batting
There's poor batting, then there's the 18 overs that occurred on Friday evening. Nick Compton on début looked solid and untroubled until he got a jaffa from Ashwin. That would have bowled many a more experienced batsman. Trott shouldn't have been allowed to opt for a nightwatchman with 20 minutes left to bat, he sent James Anderson to certain death. But the reason for his decision became apparent when he strode out at number 4, then quickly back to the shed again; all at sea, England 40-3 after chasing leather for 160 overs and over 5 sessions. Stark contrast to the ease of accumulation showed by Pujara, Sehwag and Yuvraj. The English batsmen had the best view in the house when watching how to bat in India, there are no excuses.
In my opinion, their mind-set was wrong. If you bat not to get out, only one thing will happen; you'll get out! As hard as it might be, you need to forget the situation and play each ball on its merit. We've all heard it before, it's basics of cricket. Sadly the England batsmen even failed at that, a desperate effort from the visitors.
The optimist in me would say that Cook looked untroubled and can grind out an innings better than anyone in the team; Pietersen's best innings' come when he has a point to prove; Bell is England's best player of spin and Patel and Prior are in fine form so England will turn this around and bat long tomorrow. However, reality and experience tells me that England are really up against it here and have a real battle on their hands to avoid an innings defeat, let alone asking India to bat again.
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