At the conclusion of the third Test, the contest between India’s Jamball and England’s Bazball, as R Ashwin dubbed a video on his YouTube channel, reached a turning point. Coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma appeared to have arrived with a blueprint to break the 22-yard Bazball code, as India led 2-1 following the record-breaking 434-run victory. A paata, a track that excels in the last two days of the tournament, is the ideal counterbalance to England’s aggressive Bazball style of play, as Rajkot demonstrated.
According to those in the know, the Indian team decided to forgo the turners because they were taking a calculated risk on how they would perform against this England team, not because of any ethical concerns. At the conclusion of the third Test, Rohit Sharma would refute having anything to do with the pitches, saying, “We come two days to the venue before a game, and we play what the curator prepares.” He delivered the line with such a remarkable straight face that it’s obvious why his acting in commercials has greatly improved recently.
But Ashwin had given the explanation. “That is how it is meant to work, to profit in the event that a fourth-inning scenario arises and the wicket degrades. They are playing high-risk cricket, and you would think that, as in Vizag, the luck of the draw would be on your side. additionally in Rajkot.
The kind of pitches India has been offering neutralize England’s pacer Mark Wood, who can hit over 140 kph, lessen the impact of England’s inexperienced spinners Tom Hartley and the teenage Rehan Ahmed, and leave James Anderson with too much work. In the first Test in Hyderabad, the ball spun much earlier; in the second Test in Vizag, it started later; and in the third Test in Rajkot, it spun very late. The story isn’t told by Sarfaraz Khan’s second-inning strikes or Yashasvi Jaiswal, but rather by the complete ease with which Kuldeep Yadav, the nightwatchman, batted on the fourth morning.
It also pokes fun at the conceit that permeates the Bazball cult, which England’s batsmen are members of. Ashwin would respond, “We played four and a half sessions; [if] they want to get it done in two, so be it.” The tracks enable England’s batsmen to use their flamboyant style to good effect. For example, it is much harder to imagine opener Ben Duckett’s devastating slog-sweeps to the cow corner coming off when there is no chance of a top-edge on a turner where the ball jumps and breaks. The batsmen for England have become so bold as a result that they have crossed the Lakshman Rekha of self-destruction and reasonable aggression.
It’s amazing how well England performed on these tracks considering their lacklustre spin attack and even Mark Wood’s nullification. If not for a frantic batting strategy on day 3 in Rajkot, they really had no business trying to take a 2-1 series lead without their frontline spinner Jack Leach and without Stokes’s bowling prowess.
It’s interesting to note that England’s senior batsmen are the ones who are mishandling the Bazball execution. Ben Stokes, Joe Root, and on occasion Ollie Pope. Not the Crawleys and Ducketts. Speaking about how they play shots for which they have trained extensively and after considering the risk percentage, Duckett and Crawley have both shared their thoughts. Thus, they engage in slog-sweeps and reverse sweeps.
Not a reverse lap-scoop like Root did on a pitch where the ball had started to stay a little bit low and lacked pace—two factors that were vital for that kind of shot. Stokes’s slog sweep looked good in theory, but Jadeja skillfully changed the line to go farther outside off, and with a wide long-on in place, it would take a lot of luck and far more flexible wrists for him to drag it even farther past that fielder.
Will England resort to another batsman, such as Dan Lawrence, who has also been honing his off-spin action with an unusual action in the nets, if Jonny Bairstow’s dismal form persists? It’s also time to rest Wood and replace him with Ollie Robinson, who proved to be a very good bowler on flat surfaces during England’s victory in that series in Pakistan.
The decisive victory in Rajkot by a wide margin of runs does not fully capture the essence of the game or the series. England could have been in a much better position if Stokes had chosen his shots more skillfully and Root had demonstrated better match awareness, as a former captain should have done. The Vizag chase was also botched by the same pair. Stokes ambling through the garden to get himself run out, and Root charging down the pitch for the oldest slog in this business like he was being ordered to do so by someone holding a gun to his head.
England can still challenge India if these two can settle into a batting frame of mind and either Lawrence finds his rhythm or Bairstow works his way out of trouble.
And lastly, the crucial query: How will the Ranchi pitch perform? Will India try to pull off a surprise and throw a rank-turner in case they wish to rest Jasprit Bumrah, or will they just tweak the Rajkot version further?
