By Ian Botham
I doubt if this sort of pitch will help India’s cause to level the series 2-2.
It’s an awful cricket pitch with no pace and bounce at all. If England can get past 250 then it will be the Indian batsmen who will be under more pressure.
The scorecard might not look very pretty for England at the moment but at the end of day one I think it’s even-stevens.
This is a very crucial Test for India and they are desperate to square the series and I don’t understand how this sort of a wicket will help their cause.
Adding to this, I am equally surprised by their team selection.
I think they have made a big mistake by including just one fast bowler. The pace and bounce of the wicket will start playing tricks as the game progresses and that is where the role of a medium pacer will come in even more.
England have two seamers – James Anderson and Tim Bresnan – both of whom are capable of reverse swing, so it’s an advantage that the English have.
Ravindra Jadeja’s recent form with the bat in the domestic competition has won him a Test cap.
Whatever I have seen of him, he seems to be more of a middle order batsmen who can bowl. Though he picked up two crucial wickets, I am still surprised that he did the bulk of the bowling ahead of the regular spinners like Piyush Chawla and Ravichandran Ashwin. I don’t think the Indians have got their bowling combination right.
With no Zaheer Khan around, Ishant Sharma is India’s most experienced seamer.
On this sort of a wicket he would have sought support from another seam bowler.
Over the years, there has been a lot of hype over Ishant. In his early days, I saw him run through the quality Australian top order and, at this best, he has troubled batsmen of Ricky Ponting’s class.
Ishant has shown a lot of promise but after playing close to 50 Tests, all of us expect the promise to be converted to consistent performances. He has had an injury-plagued career and it’s never easy to come back and be at your best after returning from frequent injuries.
He shouldn’t be judged on performances of one or two Tests. He should be given a little time to settle down and then the Indian management needs to figure out how he is shaping up. For this Test, I feel that he will be short of help from another seam bowler.