Yashyasvi Jaiswal’s attacking innings of 76 off 70 balls has put England behind on Day 1 of the first Test in Hyderabad. India ended the day at 119/1 after defeating England for 247 in three sessions. India are still 127 runs away but are in a dominant position heading into Day 2.
Jaiswal added an 80-run opening stand with captain Rohit Sharma and started his innings with four. He was almost perfect in the way he approached the innings and especially liked debutant Tom Hartley. The left-arm spinner made 63 runs in the nine overs of him with Jack Leach made 24 runs in nine overs and picked the wicket of Rohit Sharma. Rehan Ahmed scored 22 in his three overs.
Kevin Pietersen seemed worried about the inexperienced England spinners after the way Jaiswal attacked them all, especially Hartley. Pietersen recalled the impact of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar of the 2012 series and considered that the current batch cannot extract the purchase amount from the Indian fields.
“My big concern is England’s spinners. I said it before the series. When we won here in 2012, we had Swann and Panesar, who beat Ashwin, Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen here today, I can’t see these three spinners getting the better of the Indian spinners. I just didn’t see the ball spin enough. A couple of balls, they had to turn.” said Kevin Pietersen while speaking on Sports18.
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Yashasvi Jaiswal did not allow England spinners to catch the ball: Kevin Pietersen
KP further said that Jaiswal’s attack on the inexperienced English spinners did not allow them to establish a good line and length. He further said that the English spinners could not spin the ball as much as the Indian spinners did.
“But English weavers never understood the frontier twist. Yes, they were not allowed to spin it because Yashasvi Jaiswal was hitting it. But you also only need one ball to spin or two balls to spin. They just couldn’t start spinning. You contrast that with India. First of all, we thought: Oh, here we go. Next ball. Then we get the ball to bounce. Then we make the ball spin. Then another bounces. “We just didn’t see that with the England spinners.” Pietersen added.
Like Pietersen, Anil Kumble also talked about England’s spin attack being very inexperienced compared to the experienced Indian spin attack. Mark Wood was the only specialist seamer when England opted to drop James Anderson from the playing XI with two wicketkeepers, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes. The move ultimately backfired as Foakes was dismissed for just four runs off 24 balls.
“It will all depend on how Jack Leach leads the attack with spin. Three spinners, of course, the English management have obviously taken a look at the pitch and believe it is going to change.” Kumble responded to a PTI query during an interaction organized by Jio Cinema.
“In that sense, with just one fast bowler in that line-up, it will be interesting to see how they perform because I certainly thought that once Harry Brook was unavailable, they had the option of going with Jonny Bairstow as a wicketkeeper and then bringing in another bowler. fast” Kumble added more.
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