The excuses, like the last of the northern snow, are melting away. The pitch was decent, offering more bounce and less spin than before. The ball was red, not pink, and therefore behaving as you would imagine. The toss was won, fortunately, given England’s belt-and-braces team selection. Yet still wickets tumbled. England were bowled out before the second new ball became due, having scraped past 200 for the first time since the opening Test.
This was, given the circumstances and the conditions, as underwhelming a batting performance as any on this tour, an indication of how form and confidence can wither during a series. After a rallying cry from Joe Root on the eve of the game, some, such as Zak Crawley, stepped the wrong side of the line that separates boldness from recklessness, while others, like Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Pope, scrapped hard but did not get the luck their diligence deserved.
Whichever way you slice and dice the innings, the total was insufficient. It was given a little gloss at the end of the day, when James Anderson, slipping into his work with five consecutive maidens, dispatched Shubman Gill in the first over of India’s reply. With only Ben Stokes for support as a fast bowler, England needed some success from Anderson with the new ball to ease the burden on Jack Leach.
In his 50th Test as captain, Root was in a gambling mood. He went into the match with a 38-year old seamer, Anderson; an allrounder, Stokes, whose bowling in this series has been invisible and who was suffering from stomach cramps; and two spinners, one of whom, Dom Bess, has not been trusted to play on massively turning pitches in the past two Tests. Either England thought the pitch would be of a similar offering to last week or it was a gamble on the toss.
So, England’s selection veered from one extreme to the other, playing the extra batsman and spinner this time at the expense of two seamers, one of whom, Jofra Archer, is nursing an injury to his right elbow again. Archer’s fitness apart, England still had the option of a balanced side but instead they played catch-up on the previous Test, and stiffened the batting. Heaven knows what would have happened had Root lost the toss; thankfully they escaped that misfortune and the ball was turning appreciably for England’s spinners at the end of the day.
In the morning Mohammed Siraj showed that a fast bowler was no forlorn hope, and his performance, along with a half-century for Stokes and a sprightly innings from Dan Lawrence, suggested the potential for a wider range of skills than last week to be exhibited.
Siraj, a tremendously enthusiastic bowler, is very much a product of modern Indian cricket, bowling quickly and hitting the pitch hard, and he got the key wicket of the day when he inconvenienced Root for pace.
The phony war before spin was introduced lasted all but five overs, initially. Crawley survived a confident appeal for leg-before second ball, and generally looked less at ease than in the first innings last week, and there was enough movement to encourage Ishant Sharma. On the first sighting of spin from Axar Patel, in the sixth over, Dom Sibley missed a ball no self-respecting batsman should miss, and was bowled.
Crawley responded by smashing Patel for four down the ground, then tried a repeat, only to loft the ball to Siraj at mid-off from a skewed bat. From opposite ends of the spectrum these openers’ dismissals came, but both were undistinguished shots at the start of a Test match. Patel could hardly believe his luck, while Crawley was left to reflect on another dismissal to a left-arm spinner.
It was a frenetic opening hour, even though not one ball had spun. Root, possibly out of sync given how little quick bowling he has faced of late, looked harried when Siraj replaced Sharma for a second spell and, with the first ball after morning drinks, was beaten for pace again, and late movement, and trapped palpably in front. Not quite in the Stuart Broad class but a notorious reviewer nonetheless, Root did not send the decision upstairs.
India rather lost their focus in the second hour of the morning. The Stokes-Siraj contest set some tongues wagging, with Virat Kohli having what diplomats may have called “robust conversations” with England’s vice-captain — all in the spirit of a sporting contest and a by-product of the action and, therefore, nothing untoward. Stokes enjoys the contest in the middle more than most and, whether it was because of the greeting he received or his prior failings, he was noticeably more aggressive in his outlook against the spinners, taking Ravichandran Ashwin for a straight six when the off spinner eventually appeared.
Bairstow fretted for a dozen balls on nought; quite a fret too, one imagines, after his pair in the previous game. Having removed that threat, he enjoyed his surroundings a little more either side of lunch as India lost their range and offered some short, wide balls to cut away. Bairstow is nothing if not a proud cricketer, and a battler, and his disappointment was evident after, having done the hard work of getting established, he was given leg-before to a bail-trimmer, Siraj again the bowler.
Oddly, Kohli had held back Ashwin when Stokes came in — the off spinner bowled only three overs before lunch — and this contest was the focus of the early afternoon, with Stokes looking less flustered than before, given the absence of purchase for the spinner. Pope has also had his struggles against Ashwin but looked determined to be more decisive with his footwork, and he used his feet to the spinners in general to better effect.
Stokes sent a ball from Washington Sundar into the stands and reverse-swept a four but then missed a straight one from him, having passed 50. Lawrence settled quickly with consecutive boundaries off Patel; he gave off an air of confidence and was soon level with Pope, the two having put on 45 in 15 overs either side of tea.
Consecutively, the middle order posted partnerships of 48, 43 and 45 — further evidence that this was an easier pitch to get in on and a further reminder, therefore, of the inadequacy of the total. You had to feel some sympathy for Pope, though, given the bizarre nature of his dismissal. Coming down the pitch again, he tried to work Ashwin to leg only to see an inside edge come off his back leg and float into the hands of Gill at short leg, a cruel way to go. Ben Foakes prodded to slip and Lawrence, perhaps sensing the need to take charge with the tailend for company, signalled an advance down the pitch far too soon to Patel. Rishabh Pant completed a straightforward stumping. The end came quickly after that.
India’s spinners shared eight wickets on a day when they had no right to. If England’s spinners fail to match them, when conditions will at least be more in their favour, then it could be tricky viewing when the touring team bat again — and batting deep then may not count for much. Speaking at the end of play, Stokes thought that 300 should have been well within England’s range — not for the first time, an opportunity had been missed.
THE TIMES
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