Rookie errors plague England’s attack | Cricket

On the basis of how the England spinners have bowled in the first innings so far in the first Test, the signs don’t look good for England for rest of the five-match series.

The lack of experience in the visitor’s ranks was thoroughly exposed on Day 2 when greenhorns Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed failed to extract much purchase out of the spin-friendly surface. As Ashwin & Co proved on the first day, there is assistance from the pitch if you are a master of the craft.

Targeting them as the weak links, the Indian batters took heavy toll of debutant Hartley and the one-Test old Rehan. Hartley got all the backing of his captain Ben Stokes but the left-arm spinner failed to make it count, failing to deliver a single maiden over while leaking 135 runs in 25 overs. The two wickets he picked were thanks to poor shots by Shubman Gill, who holed out to midwicket, and KL Rahul, who picked out deep midwicket off a long hop. The expectations from Rehan were higher especially after his fine debut performance in Pakistan (seven-wicket haul) but he was listless on the day with figures of 23-3-105-1.

It meant, that despite being not fully fit, Leach ended up bowling 25 overs. The left-armer is their main spinner for the tour and England can’t afford to risk him. “He (Leach) banged his knee last night on the outfield and again banged today. Outfield (is) a little sluggish. He bowled really really well. That’s what Jack is, Jack does. He will be back, one of the strongest guys in the team. He is a tough bloke, never shirks responsibility. We need to keep him in my check,” England’s spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel said.

There was extra workload for main batter Joe Root also as Stokes had to fall back on his part-time off-spin. Leach, having played in the last series, knew how to bowl in these conditions and gave England some control. When the rest of the bowlers were going at more than four an over, he bowled at a decent rate for figures of 25-6-54-1. Root also picked up a couple of wickets to finish the day with figures of 24-2-77-2.

It does make one wonder when England got their bowling attack wrong? When Rehan made an effort to impart more revs on the ball, he lost accuracy and served up half-trackers and half-volleys. Hartley was brought in for his height advantage to extract more bounce but on a slow turner, the subtle variations and control are more important.

Jeetan said on helpful surfaces the expectations can make it tough for the bowlers. “It’s not going to be easy, just because it’s spinning doesn’t mean it makes the game easier. Spinning sometimes, it becomes harder because there’s so much of expectation. Our guys learnt from yesterday and they bowled better today and will bowl better tomorrow and day after tomorrow. they have to keep getting better series. It’s another opportunity to play Test cricket in India, to grow the squad of English cricket,” Jeetan said.

England clearly could have been better served by having their champion bowler James Anderson lead the way rather than warm the bench. In the last series, he had delivered a fine spell of reverse swing bowling in the first Test to lead his team to a win at Chennai. It is obvious the veteran bowler won’t be playing all the games but shouldn’t he have played the first one to set the tone and show the others how it is done? Either way, England will need to sort out their bowling situation quickly or they might be in for a tough time in the series.