England’s misery against spinners notoveryet
MUMBAI: The England batsmen don’t need to look any further than the scorecard of the last ODI played in India to know about the challenge that awaits them in the ODI series.
Going into that game, played last October at the Andhra Cricket Association Stadium, Visakhapatnam, India and New Zealand were locked at 2-2 in the one-day series. The turf offered a bit more help for the tweakers than the earlier matches had and Amit Mishra didn’t need a second invitation. The leg-spinner ran through the hapless Kiwis, making it a no-contest with five wickets for 18 runs in six overs.
The New Zealanders would still have left the Indian shores happy because overall they had some respite as the Indian selectors had rested their main bowlers, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. In the upcoming series, however, England are being offered no such breathing space as the duo will lead the Indian attack in the first ODI game on January 15 at Pune.
And Jonny Bairstow, England’s highest scorer in Thursday’s warm-up game with an innings of 64 (65 balls) against India A, is under no illusion of the task at hand. “I have faced Ashwin and Jadeja in Test matches (that preceded the limited-overs part of the visit). We know they have got skills which are well documented. It’s a great challenge,” said Bairstow after seeing his batsmen struggle against the India A spin pair of Shahbaz Nadeem and Parvez Rasool at the Brabourne Stadium.
Ashwin and Jadeja had spun England to a 4-0 rout in the Test series, claiming 28 and 26 wickets respectively.
England were off to a strong start, being 116 for one at one stage. But once India A captain Ajinkya Rahane introduced a double-spin attack, the visitors found the going tough. They slumped to 211 for nine before the last-wicket pair gave their total some respectability with a 71-run partnership.
In the first-warm game too, even though England won, they survived some anxious moments against the spin of Kuldeep Yadav, who finished with a fivewicket haul.
Bairstow, who gave a good account of himself in the Test series, scoring 352 runs, equated the challenge of spin for them as the swinging ball for the Indian batsmen when in England.