If Rahul Dravid is to be believed, he is ‘as clueless as anybody else’ when it comes to predicting the behaviour of pitches in India. Spoken with a shrug of a shoulder, it’s to be taken with a pinch of salt. After the Indian team reassembles in Rajkot next week, Dravid will be by the curator’s ear.
Earlier, after India’s Cape Town Test win, Rohit Sharma shed diplomatic jargons to say, “We know pitches in India will spin, but people don’t like it because it turns from ball one.”
We are yet to see that happen in the series, even though England may have come to India anticipating designer tracks and the accompaning early puff of dust. While Olie Pope’s brilliant 2nd innings 196 – the difference between the two sides at Hyderabad – was a masterclass in playing spin, the match also saw both teams posting 400-plus totals. In the second Test at Visakhapatnam, the pitch took progressively less turn.
Those involved in Indian cricket’s backroom planning say, a call was taken before the start of the series to have spin-friendly pitches, but not ones which would crumble quickly. There are many reasons for this decision. It was presumed that pitches that don’t offer cheap wickets to spin would expose England’s inexperienced spin attack. Another was an admission that India’s current batting line-up isn’t the very best anymore, to counter such conditions. Virat Kohli’s absence compounded matters.
“To be fair, there have been challenging wickets over the last few years. And it’s been a bit of a challenge for some of our young batsmen to adapt,” Dravid said after the Hyderabad defeat. “A lot of these guys do play a lot of white-ball cricket and maybe don’t get a lot of time to get to play a lot of first-class cricket. So they’re learning.”
In all of this, also factored in is the nature of opposition India are up against. This isn’t the fearful England side who rolled over three years ago. Under captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, England’s high-risk cricket holds the potential to steal India’s thunder, if the pitches are extreme.
THE SECOND HALF
Both the teams have thrown early punches, and they know this series would be like a tightly contested Davis Cup tie where there isn’t a result before the reverse singles. Unlike tennis though, the mid-series break offers the hosts a chance to assess and recalibrate playing conditions.
Jasprit Bumrah is bowling like a dream. But his body can take only so much strain and will require a breather in at least one of the three remaining Tests. With India’s other fast bowling back-ups unable to create any impression, when Bumrah sits out, India could revert to a turner. The final Test at Dharmshala will also be expected to offer early morning nip to pacers.
As England searches for answers to counter Bumrah, India would be worried that England spinners have found better results on every count (33 wkts, Avg 33.9, ER 3.48) than the home team’s distinguished spin attack (23 wkts, Avg 38.39, ER 4.18).
England’s most productive bowler has been left-arm spinner Tom Hartley. Bouncing back from his first spell in Test cricket which read 9-0-63-0, he has been the best spinner on view with 14 wickets at an average of 24.57. The rest of English spinners – Rehan Ahmed, Shoaib Bashir, Jack Leach and Joe Root, have been supportive; picking up 19 wickets among themselves. Collectively, they have picked up 87 % of India’s wickets.
This is in sharp contrast to England’s last India tour of 2021, when their spin-pace wicket-taking ratio was 64-36 % to India’s 84-16 %. It’s worth a reminder that, that series began with a relatively slow-turning pitch at Chennai where England won; after which the rest of the Test matches were played on sharp-turners, one of them being a day-night Test.
Even in the four-Test series against Australia last year, Indian spinners had a major say picking up 79% of the wickets to fall. There, the visiting spinners too did most of the bowling, picking up 89 % of Indian wickets, but in terms of averages the host spinners were much better – 20.74 to 26.28.
Both teams will have their thinking caps on, while they refuel their energies. India have had a first-hand experience of England’s firebrand batting. They know what Pope is about. That even the prolific Root is willing to reverse-sweep first ball. Zak Crawley, with his long reach and assured footwork, is a force. And Ben Stokes always remains a threat.
Do Indian batters, without Kohli, have it in them to better England if the pitches start offering turn? The counter argument to that being, wouldn’t Ashwin and Kuldeep’s chances of creating those match-turning big-wicket sessions increase, if they have more assistance from the wicket? At Visakhapatnam, Kuldeep bowled a good spell in the first innings and Ashwin asserted himself in the second, but the risk to reward ratio will have to measured carefully.
So even as the team’s go in the rest and recreation mode, the game won’t be far away from their minds. After all, there’s still a lot of cricket to be played in this series.
