Tattered, beaten and bruised are the words which aptly
describe Team India’s miserable batting performance on the day 1 of the 4th
test match at Manchester. Dhoni was very happy on winning the toss that he
immediately chose to bat first. But the pitch was neither in India nor anywhere
in the Asian subcontinent. It was in Manchester, England where surprises are a
plenty for any visiting team. Neither did Vijay’s “leave the balls alone” method
nor did Rahane’s temperament worked. Dhoni’s gritty 71 with 15 boundaries saved
the face of Indian fans and helped India pose a below average total of 152, the
proof of which was clearly evident in the England batting later in the day. Broad
and Anderson showed exactly why they were among the world’s greatest test
bowlers given that the pitch was brownish with very little grass cover in it.
The bowling skills displayed in Manchester in the first 4 hours of play evoked
memories of sweetness and put forth the point that the art of swing bowling is
here to stay. Ian bell once again came to the rescue when England was
struggling at 36-2. His strike rate could prove crucial in the result of the
match ending within 4 days.
From the perspective of Indian bowling, one should really
feel for the combined inexperience of the seam attack hardly touching 20 tests.
Pankaj Singh would bowl better if he were to shorten his bowling length a bit
and focus on a stump to stump line rather than relying on the pitch to do something.
Varun did exactly that on the last over the day when balance found his foot stuck
in the ground. Both Varun and Pankaj can exploit their height advantage and
ruffle the batsman with some short pitch bowling. Given that Fletcher has
trained the previous England outfits, it is quite surprising as to why his
coaching tactics have failed to produce considerable results in the bowling
area. Ashwin for his part showed glimpses of good variation in his flight which
is exactly what is needed if India were to even fight for the remainder of this
test match. As of now, India’s only hope of saving lies with the weather
playing spoilsport. Given that modern drainage facilities are really good enough
to sustain heavy spells of shower, such a scenario remains a rare possibility.
