ALL THIS ROTATING LEAVES ENGLAND REELINGWHAT

Selection questions are being asked after this 317-run walloping which suggests the tourists have got it badly

ENGLAND were left licking their self-inflicted wounds and wondering if the rotation method is all it is cracked up to be after India roared back to life with a thumping win.

A 317-run second Test walloping could be sensed from the middle of the second day when England’s batsmen failed to get to grips with both conditions and the opposition. So when that arrived halfway through day four there had been enough time for reflecting on whether England have it got right this winter. The sight of Jonny Bairstow chatting on Channel 4 from his hotel room quarantining his way back into the bubble after a break, or Jos Buttler doing pilates during his time at home were moments where fans and pundits could be forgiven for wondering how seriously this series is being taken. The England camp will feel reasons for rest and rotation have been explained so many times people should be over it by now. But wishing it does not make it so. And there is also plenty of room for disagreement over whether priority should be given to Test matches in an Ashes year, T20 cricket in a T20 World Cup year, or the IPL in any year. There are good grounds to ask difference an extra five T20 matches for the likes of Buttler, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes will make to England’s World Cup campaign, versus the impact of three extra Tests ahead of the Ashes.

“I don’t understand why a series like India away, which is such a huge series, you would be chopping and changing so much,” said former skipper Michael Vaughan.

“This year for me is about winning the Ashes. There’s a T20 World Cup but for English cricket it’s about getting those Ashes back.

“Surely the Test team takes preference over the T20 team. They should be getting all their eggs into the basket to make sure by the time they get to Australia they’re a team that’s played a lot of cricket together.”

If the first-test win in Chennai was a glimpse of what might be possible in India, this defeat brought England down to earth. The truth is even with a full strength and fully fit squad, they could still have come up short. Ravichandran Ashwin was man-ofthe-match but that could easily have been Rohit Sharma, while Axar Patel got a five-wicket haul on debut.

Joe Root must now try to work out a second winning formula before the day-night Test that begins on Wednesday. Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow and James Anderson are likely to return, with spinner Moeen Ali, as planned, leaving the tour.

Yet the series is 1-1, and under lights in Ahmedabad, England may well find things a little less extreme than they were in Chennai.

That at least is what Root will be telling his men.