IS THIS REALLY TEST CRICKET?
Spinners take 28 wickets on treacherous track as England are thrashed in shortest match since before Second World War. As Root says crowd were robbed, we ask...
joe root complained that the crowd had been short-changed by the conditions during the third test after england crashed to a 10-wicket defeat in a little over five sessions — the shortest completed test since 1935.
Seventeen wickets fell on a frantic day in ahmedabad, which began with root taking an incredible five for eight as india collapsed to 145.
But his team were then skittled for 81, handing the hosts a 2-1 lead ahead of next week’s final test. the result means england can no longer reach the final of the World test Championship in june.
admitting his side had been outplayed, root said a big crowd had been robbed of the chance to watch some of the world’s best fast bowlers on a difficult pitch where 28 of 30 wickets fell to spin. ‘it’s a real shame because it’s a fantastic stadium, 40,000 people have
IT DOES not get any more gruesome than this. Gruesome for england, brushed aside for their lowest score against India, and even worse for the health of test cricket. How can a game that finishes in barely more than five sessions be anything but an embarrassment?
Not so gruesome for India, of course, but surely even they could not take too much pleasure from seeing the grand opening of the world’s biggest cricket ground turn into the farce of the shortest test since before the second World War.
What were we saying about this pitch being better than Chennai? the benefit of that doubt should not have gone to the groundsman after day one because this, sadly, was another surface that was not fit for test purpose.
Yes, england were abject with the bat — and India only a little less so — but the fact Joe Root could introduce his part-time off-breaks and take five for eight emphasised beyond doubt that conditions were far too heavily weighted in the ball’s favour.
even when Root and Jack Leach were skittling India in the first session yesterday — and how long ago that seems now — to take the last seven wickets for 31, the writing still seemed to be on the wall for england.
India’s lead then stood only at 33 but it just did not seem feasible england could bat for at least the last two sessions of the second day on that pitch against Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel and put pressure on Virat Kohli.
And when two wickets fell to the first three balls of england’s second innings, with an overturned dismissal sandwiched between the two, it became certain India would take a 2-1 lead and end any hopes Root had of reaching the World test Championship final.
What drama there was when Zak Crawley, the only england batsman to emerge with any first innings credit, played down the wrong line to Patel’s first ball and what a roar from the crowd when Jonny Bairstow missed a sweep next ball and was given lbw — but stayed in after a review.
that would have given Patel a hat-trick in only his second test yet his disappointment was short-lived as the left-arm stand-in for the injured Ravindra Jadeja crashed the next ball through Bairstow’s flimsy defences to leave england nought for two after three balls.
Game all but over and the most miserable of pairs for Bairstow, sent home to rest after impressing on his test return in sri Lanka and then thrown into this third test after a tortuous journey back to India that included a seven-hour bus ride. thanks for coming,
Bairstow, all frenetic and scrambled, was the perfect example of england’s controversial rest-androtation policy in microcosm.
It was introduced with the best of intentions, of course, and the proof of the pudding will come in Australia in december.
But right now the policy does not seem fit for purpose. Not if england maintain, with a straight face, that test cricket and reaching No1 in the world is their priority.
england’s only hope was if their best two players of spin in Root and Ben stokes could somehow find a method to cope with conditions where some balls turned and spat but the bulk went straight on with Patel’s arm.
they did manage to put on 31 for the fourth wicket, riches in a total of 81, and Root survived a contentious tV umpire decision when Chettithody shamshuddin, who so annoyed england on the first day, overturned Anil Chaudhary’s lbw call.
the fact shamshuddin took his time before deciding, on marginal evidence, Root had got an inside edge on to pad even though the england captain did not seem to think he had hit it, at least suggested the tV umpire wanted to prove his fairness.
sadly, it did not do england any good. Root only added three more to his 16 before he became one of Patel’s five victims and stokes, who had at least tried to be assertive and work out a way to score, fell again to his nemesis Ashwin.
When ollie Pope, looking as frazzled as Bairstow and anything but england’s next great batsman in waiting, and then Jofra Archer also fell to Ashwin the Indian off-spinner had 400 test wickets, second only to Muttiah Muralitharan in his speed to the landmark.
It is a fantastic achievement for Ashwin but he still had to play second fiddle to his inexperienced colleague here, Patel finishing with 11 wickets in the match before India’s third spinner, Washington sundar, chipped in by claiming his first in Jimmy Anderson.
India may have been bowled out for 36 by Australia with the pink ball in december but a repeat never looked likely here, Rohit sharma and shubman Gill racing to their target of 49 in 7.4 overs as england’s misery was complete.
they have a week now to somehow find a way to survive and score on what is sure to be a carbon- copy of an Ahmedabad pitch in the last test but the odds are overwhelmingly now on the convincing India victory we all expected before england produced that great upset in the first test. And how long ago that seems now. there will be much talk about england picking too many seamers on what turned out to another raging turner.
But the performance of Root yesterday showed why they tried to play to their strengths with a pink ball that was supposed to swing under lights. Fact is, Root is probably a better off-spinner right now than dom Bess.
No, england did not lose because they put Anderson and stuart Broad together again but then saw them rendered impotent by conditions. they lost because their batmen could not cope when the odds were tilted significantly towards India’s world- class spinners. And that is unlikely to change in time for the last test.