Root’s men: Square pegs in round holes
The spinners combine share seven wickets; seamer Siraj too plays his part with the semi-new and old ball scalping two
It was the witty Indian attack, that wrecked the England batting line up as the visitors fading batting fortunes continued on day-one of the final Test of the fourTest series, at the Motera stadium here on Thursday.
The only saving grace was that, England's total of 205, was more than they had achieved across two innings on the same ground last week, the worst, that there is no team more adept than India at making such hard graft look inadequate. And ended the day at 24 for the lose of Shubham Gill's wicket.
Root and company batting lost the battle of both mind and skills in yet another shoddy performance to surrender the momentum, with Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin calling the shots.
After five innings, England crossed the 200-run mark but a total of 205 in 75.5 overs was certainly not what Joe Root had expected when he called it right at the toss on a day which would have ideally been best for batting.
There was turn and bounce but the pitch was far from being a minefield that some of the England batsmen save Ben Stokes (55, 121 balls) made it out to be.
For India, spinners Axar
Patel (26-7-68-4), Ravichandran Ashwin (19.5-4-47-3) and Washington Sundar (7-1-14-1) toyed with the already messed up minds, clueless on how to deal with the conditions.
Mohammed Siraj (14-2-45-2) also played his part to perfection with the semi-new and old ball, hurrying the batsmen with sheer pace as he did with Jonny Bairstow.
India ended the day at 24 for 1 with wily old James Anderson (5-5-0-1) accounting for an out-of-form Shubman Gill (0). Rohit Sharma (8 batting, 34 balls) and Cheteshwar Pujara (15 batting, 36 balls) were holding fort for the home side.
A cursory look at the England line-up, loaded with an extra batsman, will reveal that four, Stokes, Bairstow (28, 67 balls), Dan Lawrence (46 off 74 balls) and Ollie Pope (29 off 87 balls) got starts but failed miserably on the conversion part.
The others came in and went without breaking a bead of sweat. It was as if already in their minds, they were playing on a track they thought would turn square.
Stokes was a cut above the rest both in defence and offence before a moment's indecision cost him his wicket.
Washington angled one in and Stokes was on backfoot after initially trying to come forward preempting an offbreak. The ball didn't turn and hit the back leg with clear indication of crashing into the leg stump.
Stokes' dismissal, after a good show, upset the team's rhythm just when it was looking to redeem itself after a poor first session.
Similarly for Lawrence, who was ready to play the attacking game, and Pope, intent on using his footwork to defend while negating the turn. There was always going to be a delivery with their name written all over it.