Visakhapatnam: Under fire after a below-par show on a good batting strip, the Indian spinners will aim for an improved show on a comparatively more helpful track as they take on a gritty England in the second cricket Test, starting here on Thursday.
The pitch at the ACA-VDCA ground is expected to be a rank turner that will test the visiting side’s batting unit big time after skipper Virat Kohli expressed his displeasure about the Rajkot strip where Indian spinners got a total nine wickets with four English batsmen scoring hundreds.
Questions are being raised about Ravichandran Ashwin’s ability to get wickets on a good track after finishing with underwhelming match figures of 3/230.
Veteran opener Gautam Gambhir’s place in the side is also under scanner after his poor show in the first Test and now that young KL Rahul has been fast-tracked into side in the wake of his good show on his Ranji comeback, the Delhi southpaw will certainly be on tenterhooks.
As the battle is expected to boil down to the spinners, it will be interesting whether Virat Kohli wants an extra batsman or an all-rounder in the playing XI. Fielding is another area where the Indians would like to improve after their dropped catches.
Spin has been the way forward for India but the mantra did not exactly work out for MS Dhoni and Co more than four years ago when England snatched a 2-1 series win after losing the first Test in Ahmedabad.
It was widely attributed that India will come out all guns blazing against the embattled England especially after their embarrassing first-ever defeat in Bangladesh about two weeks ago.
Despite the drawn result, four of England’s batsmen got centuries and spinners had a larger share of 13 wickets. Cook and Co. shown that they will not be pushovers unlike New Zealand, who were whitewashed 3-0 in the last series.
It’s clear from the visitors’ improved show that a tricky road lies ahead for India.
The famed Indian spinners did not dominate in Rajkot where the battle was won by the England troika of Moeen Ali, Zafar Ansari and leg-spinner Adil Rashid who returned with a match-haul of seven wickets. (PTI)
