India v England: Five things from Visakhapatnam as hosts take series lead
Monday 21 November 2016 17:06, UK
Virat Kohli's strengths - and weaknesses - come to the fore, more disappointment for Ben Duckett and dog stops play as India triumph over England in the second Test.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Adil Rashid also exploited the conditions superbly on a pitch that offered turn and increasingly variable bounce as the match went on.
Ultimately though, the England leg-spinner's efforts were in vain as India took a 1-0 lead in the series after an intriguing five days in Visakhapatnam.
Kohli's mixed bag
The India skipper showed his class with the bat once again, taking full advantage of favourable conditions for batting on the first day to score a brilliant 167. And then, in India's second innings, with other batsmen scratching around on a rapidly deteriorating surface, he cruised his way to 81 - his innings finally brought to an end by a stunning catch from Ben Stokes.
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However, while pundits fell over themselves in a clamour to praise his batting prowess, his captaincy during England's second innings - particularly on day four - drew a very different reaction.
"Staggeringly bad" was Bob Willis' assessment on The Verdict and Nasser Hussain was equally unimpressed by his field settings and the ends at which he used his bowlers during England's stubborn resistance on the fourth afternoon and evening.
"You can lead by example, as Kohli does with the bat, you can show a lot of passion which Kohli does in abundance," he said. "But tactically I think he is pretty naive."
There was at least an improvement on the final day as India wrapped up victory, Hussain acknowledged.
"He's been better today," he told Sky Sports. "He hasn't been as noticeable; sometimes he interferes a bit too much but what he did today was not move the field as much and not tinker as much. But that doesn't take away from the fact that he was poor yesterday."
Should England gain the upper hand by winning the toss in Mohali, Kohli's marshalling of his troops will come under scrutiny once more though and it remains to be seen how he will respond to that pressure.
Rashid steps up
Bob Willis is not a man shy of offering his opinion and after Rashid's unconvincing displays in the Bangladesh Tests, plenty were in full agreement with his typically frank judgement that the leg-spinner should be on the next flight back to the UK.
Two Tests and 13 wickets later, Rashid has delivered a most eloquent riposte on the pitch. After seven wickets in Rajkot, another six in Visakhapatnam proved that his opening-Test effort was no fluke.
That he was capable of producing deliveries of supreme quality was never in doubt; but it was the full tosses and long-hops that came with along them which drew criticism.
Saqlain Mushtaq's arrival as England's spin coach for the first three Tests in India seems to have helped to eradicate those aberrations and Rashid is now bowling with a previously unseen control and confidence. So much so that Alastair Cook had no reservations about throwing him the ball just five overs into India's second innings.
His faith was rewarded with four wickets in the innings and Rashid's resurgence is such that even his biggest critics are beginning to be won round…
Test Cricket: The Verdict
"He's getting better and better, isn't he?" Willis told The Verdict. "He's shoving my words right back down my throat when I said he should be on the plane back to Leeds-Bradford airport - that's come back to haunt me!
"He's fast becoming England's leading spin bowler and making a case for Moeen Ali to bat high up the order and be a second spinner."
Ashwin up and running
He was the man England were told to fear most ahead of the series. Ashwin had risen to the top of the Test bowling rankings after a succession of stunning performances in the past two years. Not least, his 20 wickets at just 21.05 against New Zealand in October.
However, against England it has been a different story. The 30-year-old had struggled to make any real impact in his previous encounters with India's opponents in this five-match run and he fared little better in the first Test. 3-230 in 69.3 overs his rather underwhelming match figures.
He spoke ahead of the Visakhapatnam Test about his desire to improve and that is exactly what he did, taking his 22nd five-wicket haul in Tests - his first against England - as the tourists succumbed to 255 all out in their first innings.
Ashwin quickly found his rhythm and his threat was amplified by the additional drift that he was able to find compared to Rajkot and, after a further three wickets in the visitors' second innings, he looks to have overcome his England hoodoo.
Duckett in the doldrums
One man who struggled more than most against Ashwin's off-spin was Duckett. Having been heralded as England's bright new hope following his exploits during the ODI series and an entertaining half-century in Bangladesh, the left-hander has been found wanting in India thus far.
His frailties against off-spin, on turning tracks, have been cruelly exposed with Ashwin dismissing him in each of his three innings in the series to date, leading his defensive technique to be called into question.
"It is amazing how quickly the game at the highest level presents challenges," Michael Atherton remarked. "In his very first innings in Chittagong in Test cricket, he showed the off-spinner his stumps and paid the price, and he has done that twice here now.
"He's got to look at that defensive technique to the off-spinner. At the moment he is showing too much of his stumps and with two quality off-spinners, Ashwin - the No 1 bowler in the world - and Jayant Yadav, that's going to be a problem."
Duckett tried to address the issue ahead of his second knock in Visakhapatnam and looked to go on the attack against Ashwin. The result though was the same, Duckett gone cheaply and after only 18 runs in three innings, it seems unlikely that he'll make the XI for Mohali.
Dog stops play!
Over the years we have seen all manner of creatures enter the field and hold up proceedings. From bees in Zimbabwe earlier this year to the Brisbane piglet, with "Botham" emblazoned on one side, in a 1983 World Series match between Australia and England.
Cricket's latest unexpected pitch invader arrived shortly before tea on the first day as a stray dog brazenly scampered onto the outfield as Stuart Broad readied himself to bowl to Cheteshwar Pujara.
Stadium stewards were quickly sent onto the pitch to try and remove the canine but, with Broad and Cook allowing themselves a chuckle at the incident, the dog toyed with his would-be captors, evading their grasp and then trotting off the pitch… only to return moments later!
Eventually, the decision was made to call for a slightly early tea and allow the stewards a full 20 minutes to shepherd the pesky pooch from the field of play.
Watch the third Test between India and England at Mohali live on Sky Sports 2 from 3.30am on Saturday.
