Another English collapse
Though the pitch was not a square turner, the visitors were bundled out for 205 on Day 1 of 4th Test
AHMEDABAD: In the dazzle of Ahmedabad’s afternoon heat, the light reflecting off the orange seats of the new stadium, Dan Lawrence got into his stance by lifting his bat high against his back and then squinted at Axar Patel at the top of his bowling mark. Sunglasses cooling his eyes, Patel jogged in to commence the 69th over of England’s innings and dropped the first ball a tad short, which the well-set Lawrence swivelled into and handsomely pulled it for a boundary through the empty swathe behind square leg.
Even as the crack of the bat echoed against the mostly vacant stands, English cricket ticked off two sizeable achievements, at least as far as their batting in this series is concerned. The first was that young Lawrence—earmarked for his ability to play spin—had reached a score of 40 for the first time since his debut in Galle nearly two months ago, where he had scored 73. Between then and now, there was a string of enough singledigit scores to get him dropped from the previous Test here.
The more significant milestone that occurred with Lawrence’s lofted hit off Patel had to do with his team’s score. As it moved from 178/7 to 182/7, it gave Joe Root’s side their highest innings score in this fourmatch series since the first innings of the first Test in Chennai. Such has been the incredible control India’s spinners have exerted over the visitors’ bats and minds that England’s eventual total of 205 (after they
chose to bat, no less) felt like a bit of a resistance.
That barrier fell soon enough when an overconfident Lawrence danced down the wicket to Patel and was stumped on 46. This resulted in England barely stumbling over 200, and not touching a 250-plus score that they long threatened. A middling total, however, couldn’t be blamed on the Motera pitch this time around, like England’s embarrassing batting collapses (112 and 81 all out) within these very walls in the third Test were.
Despite the wicket for the fourth Test not spinning anywhere near as much as the adjacent wicket on which the previous game was played—which had seen heavy spin from the first session—England still only managed a sub-par score. Even Ben Stokes, England’s hero of the day with a top score of 55 patient runs, believed that the
threat on the current pitch was bounce and not turn. He then added that his team should feel dejected for not scoring more runs when the opportunity presented itself. In short, the pitch may not be to blame for every English implosion on this tour.
“I’m only disappointed that we’re not still batting,” Stokes would say at stumps, which were drawn after a cautious Rohit Sharma ensured opener Shubman Gill was India’s only casualty on Day One (India are 24/1). Stokes added: “We looked
more than capable of scoring over 300 runs. In the morning and through the afternoon, it was the bounce and not the spin that was the issue. So it’s frustrating because I got in and got comfortable and for two-and-ahalf hours I was trying to not get out to the ball that skids on and that’s exactly what got me out.”
Off the 121st ball he faced on Thursday—Stokes’s longest stay at the crease in terms of balls and time on this tour—Washington Sundar, who had got several balls to spin away from the left-hander in the lead-up to the wicket, trapped him leg-before with a straighter one.
Deep into the crease he was when Stokes turned around to check if the ball would’ve knocked over the stumps, then simply shook his head and walked away. But while he was around, as it often is the case, England seemed capable of miracles.