So England finally passed their test on a turning wicket in the second test against India, after their previous woes on the subcontinent. Sublime centuries from the ever-reliant Alastair Cook and the brilliant enigma which is Kevin Pietersen, coupled with a masterclass in spin bowling by the deadly duo of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann helped England to level the series with a commanding ten wicket victory.
The misery of the resounding defeat in Ahmedabad has been brushed aside, and instead the momentum of the series has swung into England’s favour. The Indian media which lavished praise upon their national side after the first test, has instead heaped criticism on Dhoni’s team after the dismal collapse they succumbed to in the second innings, as Panesar and Swann ripped their formidable batting line up apart. Even the current ability of the great Sachin Tendulkar has been questioned after his poor run of form continued, yet he has been selected again for the third test next week.
Indeed for Panesar it was one of his best matches in his international career, finishing with match figures of 11-210. In light of is performance India captain Dhoni praised the slow left arm bowler commenting: “None of the other bowlers troubled the batsmen in the way Monty did.” Indeed this cold be a big breakthrough for the popular left hander, who in recent years has found it challenging to establish himself in the England side.
Now I don’t mean to take anything away from Panesar and Swann, who bowled superbly exploiting the pitch to their advantage, but the wicket that was provided in Mumbai, was simply one which in my mind degrades test cricket. Yes, different pitches and different countries should provide different challenges, but a wicket which is so conducive to spin is shifting the balance too far in the spinners’ favour, and may well deflect from the achievements of England’s spinners.
After England’s decline in the first match, India chose to prepare another wicket which would turn significantly, but in the end I believe that it was only to the detriment of test cricket. Indeed spin should play a part in every test match, but not to the extent that it did in Mumbai. When 28 out of 30 wickets fall to spin (another was a run out, as James Anderson took the only wicket with seam bowling), and both teams open the bowling with spinners, in India’s case at both ends, then there’s clearly something going wrong.
Test cricket is supposed to be about combining the best batters, best seam bowlers and best spinners, but in the last test, one of those three crucial ingredients was missing. Your traditional fast bowlers had no meaningful role to play, why bother when a pitch is spinning so much. India played three frontline spinners and only Zaheer Khan as a recognised seamer. Zaheer, one of the top bowlers in the world on his day bowled a paltry 15 overs in the match. In Anderson and Stuart Broad, England possess a potent opening attack, but between the pair of them they only bowled 34 overs, with Broad not featuring at all in the second innings. In fact 289 overs were completed, and of those only 49 were from fast bowlers, the other 240 from spinners.
Sceptics will argue that’s the challenge of going to India, it’s all about your ability to deal with spinning tracks, and rack up the runs when the conditions are suited to batting. Very few players seemed to master the track in Mumbai, but Cheteshwar Pujara for India, and Cook and Pietersen for England showed that the wicket was playable. Indeed Cook has led by example as two centuries in this series have proved a potent source of runs for the tourists. The plaudits meanwhile have been handed to Pietersen, whose brilliant 186 in the first innings was instrumental in allowing England to establish a first innings lead.
A week tomorrow the third test starts in Kolkata, and it will be interesting to see what sort of wicket will be in store. Will the Indians try and prepare another spinning track, or will they revert to a more balanced and traditional style of wicket, after they were beaten at their own game in Mumbai. All I can say is that I hope it’s not spin, spin and spin again as was the case in the second test.