Morgan’s men in a real spin against India
MORGAN’S MEN CAN’T CHEER US UP AS INDIA’S STAR SPINNER TAKES SIX
More World Cup agony awaits england, this time in 50- over cricket next year, if India play with all the assurance, skill and confidence they showed yesterday in this emphatic first one-day international win.
This was not only a thrashing for eoin Morgan’s all-conquering side but also a sobering one against a team who could easily shatter all that hope and all those expectations england will take into their home World Cup.
And, more urgently, if the sun continues to shine on Virat Kohli’s India, who have already won the Twenty20 series, they could turn this into the most chastening of summers for england across all formats. rmats.
At the centre of this eight-wicket battering, ng, sealed with 59 balls to o spare, was that rarity, a left-arm wrist spinner in the form of the outstanding Kuldeep Yadav.
‘The grounds we’ve e played him on have ve offered turn and he spun pun it more than any otherer spinner spinroy, in the game today,’ said Morgan. ‘We need to get better playing him because when he does bowl well he’s very good.
‘Given there’s only one left-arm wrist spinner in world cricket it’s not a great concern that we haven’t been able to pick him, particularly as he’s very good. We just need to clarify our plans and play better against him.’
This unheralded member of the India side was all but unplayable as england slipped and stuttered to a way below par 268 all out on the Nottingham ground where they flayed Australia to all parts only last month. Then any hopes england had of making a contest of this first of three royal London matches were quickly dispelled when rohit Sharma, with his second consecutive sublime century, and Kohli made a mockery of what went before in a secondwicket stand of 167. The imperious Sharma ended unbeaten on 137 as India strolled home.
england had made a decent enough start when Jonny Bairstow and Jason roy put on 73 but once Kuldeep was brought on for the 11th over this was a different game. By the time the 23-year-old had bowled 11 balls he had ripped the heart out of the batting, claiming the wickets ofroy, Joe rroot and Bairstow and leavinleaving england with no chachance of getting anywhere whanywhere near the 481 they mmanaged here against AAustralia.
The more conventional tconventional leg-spin of Yuzvendra Chahal did for Morgan before Jos BuButtler and Ben Stokes led a partial recovery that looked as if it might lift englengland towards something like par.
Yet when Buttler went, Stokes seemingly did not know whether to stick or twist and got totally bogged down. His previous slowest oDI 50 came off 63 balls but this one took him 102 deliveries.
Stokes fell immediately after reaching 50 as Kuldeep returned to claim Buttler and the Durham man and, with the last ball of his spell, David Willey.
That gave Kuldeep the sensational figures of six for 25 in an ominous sign of what might await england for the rest of this Indian summer. And to think India’s ‘big’ two spinners of ravichandran Ashwin and ravindra Jadeja are not even here yet. The one batsman who played Kuldeep anything like expertly in england’s Twenty20 victory in Cardiff was Alex Hales, who would have been left out here yesterday even had he not hurt his side batting in the nets.
It was always likely Hales would be the odd man out as soon as Stokes regained his fitness, even though the Notts batsman hit two centuries in record-breaking recent one- day matches on his home ground.
Yet if the rest of england’s batting are going to play Kuldeep as badly as this — and worryingly he has got root out twice in three balls so far on this tour — then they might rue the fact Hales’s injury has ruled him out for the rest of the series.
For now those batsmen who will face Kuldeep at Lord’s tomorrow and Leeds on Tuesday have much to ponder.