ENGLAND Woeful batting display gives up the advantage from Root call
ON THE PULLS Indian opener Rohit Sharma on his way to a valuable half-century
WITH the series up for grabs England threw away their toss advantage in a ‘depressing’ hour of mayhem as India left them spinning in the dirt.
An afternoon so full of promise, when Joe Root, right, correctly called heads, had started to blossom into something better.
Powered by the blade of Zak Crawley and the reassurance of Root himself, England could almost have claimed to be sitting pretty at 74-2.
But, just 60 minutes later, they were 93-7 on their way to 112 all out, their lowest first innings score in India, to leave any thoughts of a famous series win in tatters, barring a miracle.
Of course this was a certain type of day-night history repeating itself. Just as the New Zealand bowlers dismantled the England line-up for 58 in the bright Auckland sunshine three years ago, so too the Indian bowlers captured 8-38 in the daylight hours here.
This pink-ballTest was supposed to provide England’s route back to retaking the initiative in this series thanks to the swing movement it provides under lights, which is why they only picked one spinner.
But for India it was just another coloured ball with which to humiliate England’s batsmen.
They picked three spinners to pray on the tourists’ frailty but needed just two to get the job done. The best batsmen that England can call on were a simply unable to lay a bat on balls that pitched and went straight on from the fingers of Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin. Patel’s 6-38 was a delight to watch as he teased England’s batsmen with flight and angles, with the odd ball turning but most going straight ahead to trap players lbw.
Five out of England’s top six fell to the non-spinning ball, which represented a remarkable collective effort of mediocrity. Former skipper Sir Andrew Strauss said: “There were some poor defensive techniques there. England will be very disappointed with what they’ve shown, all in all a very depressing performance. “It was a big toss to win and England fluffed their lines, quite