Cook forced to shield Rashid
It IS not accurate to say Alastair Cook hasn’t got faith in his spinners but the way he handled them on the fourth day of this fabulous, nail-biting test was instructive of the strengths and weaknesses of the ones at his disposal.
Adil Rashid is a key figure this winter, especially against India’s array of right-handers in the five-test series to come, but he is no Graeme Swann and consequently the England captain has to treat him differently.
Rashid is capable of brilliant, Shane Warne- esque deliveries but, unlike the great Australian, he also serves up his share of long hops and full tosses which provides a test of how the captain uses his leg-spinner.
It strikes me that, unlike Swann and Warne, Rashid can lack a bit of confidence and operates better when he is protected by his captain and, as we’ve seen, when the batsmen have to get after him in one-day cricket.
So that’s why Cook had one slip and four men on the boundary at times for Rashid even when faced with two right-handers whereas for Gareth Batty, admittedly with a left-hander to bowl at, he had a slip, silly point and a short leg.
It shows me that, in a low-scoring game, Cook has to protect the boundary with Rashid and if he hadn’t done so on the fourth day then that target Bangladesh were facing this morning might have been closer to 10 to win.
Rashid bowls better when he has that protection. I’ve seen plenty of spinners like that. they are bowling well so you bring fielders in and the moment you do that they tense up and drag the odd one down. Rashid is a bit like that.
Batty, at 39, is playing now as a safety valve and the longer the day went on yesterday the better he bowled. the ball with which he got Mushfiqur Rahim in the last session could well turn out to be the match-winning one.
It’s a balancing act for a captain when dealing with a fragile character like Rashid because what you see with him is what you get.
He will bowl those wicket-taking balls but he cannot seem to cut out those rank four balls and I don’t blame Cook for the way he is trying to deal with that.
the bowler has to earn the right to have men round the bat yet the captain has to know when to attack with his leg-spinner, particularly when he has more runs to defend.
I said earlier in this match that Cook had almost under-used his seamers in the first innings so I had no issue with him turning to Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes when the ball started to reverse swing.
they are England’s strength and it was typical of Broad to rise to the occasion with two big wickets when he was needed most after having such a quiet match. Seam at one end and spin at the other is a good option. Cook needed a seamer on.
Whatever happened on the fifth morning you have to say that was a magnificent run- chase from Bangladesh. In those conditions, after losing the toss, to get anywhere near the target has been absolutely outstanding.
Anyone who was saying before this tour that Bangladesh were a walkover and questioning why England were going there at all should have been watching this because it has been an absolutely brilliant test.
there is so much talk about the future of tests and the latest idea to try to save them is the introduction of day- night matches but if you play on a pitch that has something in it for bowlers then it will produce exciting, compelling cricket.
We have not seen a score in excess of 300 in four innings in Chittagong but what we have seen is a fantastic contest that has given us all-action cricket and I will never have any problem with a surface that turns from the start.
this has been an excellent test, too, for the merits of the decision-review system because it is such hard work for the umpires in conditions like those in Bangladesh — and poor Kumar Dharmasena has had a bit of a nightmare — and technology has ensured that the correct decisions have been reached.
I’m very pleased that India have finally come round to realising that it should be used in all tests.