NEW DELHI: The pitches in Ahmedabad and now here have taken West Indies left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican by surprise, given that they are not the sort of rank turners which have led to mostly early finishes and made India’s home Tests a gamble in the recent past.
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Not so for India’s own spinners, who’ve known all along what to expect in this series. Ravindra Jadeja revealed after Saturday’s play that the team intentionally “did not ask” for the sort of dry, crumbling pitches where playing spin often becomes an impossibility, leads to early finishes, and leaves the opposition spinners too in with a whiff of a chance.
Warrican seemed bemused that West Indies’ pre-series assessment of conditions here did not turn out to be accurate. “After watching the last couple of games between England and New Zealand, it was turning square from Day One. That was our expectation, but clearly, that’s not the case. In fact, Days One and Two seemed good for batting,” Warrican assessed.
The West Indies cannot be faulted for getting their homework wrong. In the last two years, there have been rare blips in India’s enviable home record. Having lost the first Test against the Kiwis in Bengaluru, where they collapsed to the pacers for 46, India went on to lose the next two inside three days.
In Pune, Washington Sundar bagged seven Kiwi wickets in the first innings, but India still lost by 113 runs as Mitchell Santner ran riot. In Mumbai, Ajaz Patel got into the act. India also lost to England in Hyderabad inside four days, with part-time spinner Joe Root bagging four wickets in the first innings and rookie slow left-arm spinner Tom Hartley bagging seven in the second.
Earlier, Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann ensured a win within three days for Australia in Indore. India’s spinners either declined in tandem or their batters were not good against the turning ball. “I’m not surprised because we’ve only asked for slow turners. We didn’t ask for rank turners,” Jadeja said.
The flip side is the spinners have to work harder for wickets. “As we saw today, the bounce is low and there isn’t much turn on offer off the surface,” Jadeja said. “We’ve to use our shoulders a lot. Less pace makes it easy to adjust to the length or go on the back foot and work the ball. We now have to be a bit quicker in the air. Not every ball is turning. We’ve to work really hard for our wickets,” he added.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel.
Not so for India’s own spinners, who’ve known all along what to expect in this series. Ravindra Jadeja revealed after Saturday’s play that the team intentionally “did not ask” for the sort of dry, crumbling pitches where playing spin often becomes an impossibility, leads to early finishes, and leaves the opposition spinners too in with a whiff of a chance.
Warrican seemed bemused that West Indies’ pre-series assessment of conditions here did not turn out to be accurate. “After watching the last couple of games between England and New Zealand, it was turning square from Day One. That was our expectation, but clearly, that’s not the case. In fact, Days One and Two seemed good for batting,” Warrican assessed.
The West Indies cannot be faulted for getting their homework wrong. In the last two years, there have been rare blips in India’s enviable home record. Having lost the first Test against the Kiwis in Bengaluru, where they collapsed to the pacers for 46, India went on to lose the next two inside three days.
In Pune, Washington Sundar bagged seven Kiwi wickets in the first innings, but India still lost by 113 runs as Mitchell Santner ran riot. In Mumbai, Ajaz Patel got into the act. India also lost to England in Hyderabad inside four days, with part-time spinner Joe Root bagging four wickets in the first innings and rookie slow left-arm spinner Tom Hartley bagging seven in the second.
Earlier, Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann ensured a win within three days for Australia in Indore. India’s spinners either declined in tandem or their batters were not good against the turning ball. “I’m not surprised because we’ve only asked for slow turners. We didn’t ask for rank turners,” Jadeja said.
The flip side is the spinners have to work harder for wickets. “As we saw today, the bounce is low and there isn’t much turn on offer off the surface,” Jadeja said. “We’ve to use our shoulders a lot. Less pace makes it easy to adjust to the length or go on the back foot and work the ball. We now have to be a bit quicker in the air. Not every ball is turning. We’ve to work really hard for our wickets,” he added.
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