ON THAT PITCH AND HOW ENGLAND CAN BOUNCE BACK
Talk of the pitch we played on in the 10-wicket defeat has all been from the outside and whatever is prepared we have to bat on it. India bowled well on it, that’s all I can say.
It is not something that we have spoken about between ourselves and I’m not sure there are any complaints over its quality from the England team.
I have always been of the belief that whatever the conditions, you just crack on with it. It doesn’t matter if the ball is spinning or bouncing.
Even in the nets, I’m quite happy to go out there and face one that’s going through the roof because one day you might have to bat on a surface that does the same thing.
To me, it doesn’t matter what pitches we play on. There’s not much to complain about in life — apart from bad Wi-Fi, of course!
The day-nighter I played against Glamorgan three years ago was over in five sessions and on the day I signed my first Sussex contract we beat leicestershire inside two days, so matches finish quickly in England, too.
let’s be honest, we are in India and we have to expect the ball to spin. That’s fine. although it doesn’t mean that batting is easy.
In the first innings in ahmedabad, it felt hard to get the ball away against their spinners Ravichandran ashwin and axar Patel.
and so, ahead of the second innings, Joe Root encouraged us all to be fearless in our approach.
He wanted us to realise we had nothing to lose and not to go into our shells, and he urged us to keep the same mentality for the rest of this series.
Draws were no good to us in our quest to make the World Test Championship final, so it was important to be positive.
That was just one game and who knows what lies ahead for the final Test? It could be quite a bit different and we have to find ways of adapting to whatever is thrown at us — that is the challenge for any toplevel cricketer, wherever they play in the world. new bowling coach. I actually lived with Jon for a couple of years as part of the deal when I first signed for Sussex.
He put up myself and Delray Rawlins and was really good to us. We got to use his car and nowhere in the house was off-limits. It was like being a part of an adopted family, to be honest.
Coming from Barbados, it helped me settle and I didn’t have to worry about stuff like paying bills, which meant I just focused on getting used to the climate and winter training. all the smaller stuff.
Jon has a young son, George, who was about five at the time and he was asked to draw a family portrait at school. He did so and included me and Del, so when his mum went to pick him up one day, the teacher called her over to ask whether she knew of these two extra people.
She said yes, and turned on her heels. George was just so used to having us around and I look back on that period as a great two years.
We obviously have a working relationship but the off-field one
between Jon and myself is quite natural.
i don’t remember too many times when we talked specifically about cricket but i do remember one day in the living room when i asked him how many wickets he took for England.
he reeled off his numbers: 18 in one- day internationals, four in twenty20 and three in test cricket.
i told him that he was giving me some markers for when i played for England, so during the 2019 World Cup, when i passed 18, i texted him to say: ‘there we go.’
and some of his advice i take on to the field with me whenever i play test matches, the next of which i hope starts on thursday. You always hope to play. if i don’t, i understand. i came out here wanting to play at least two of the four. and so a third game would be a bonus.
But i’m quite happy as i know that as a fast bowler on the subcontinent you are not going to be able to bowl as much as you would like.
What Jon always says to me is that you get one, two or three wickets in matches when things are not in your favour and that is part of the process, to keep ticking along until conditions are in your favour and a big haul comes. Welcome appointment: England bowling coach Jon Lewis