All his experience and self-belief told R Ashwin at the end of day two that the Rajkot Test was more delicately poised than the scoreboard suggested. Here’s why
Karthik Krishnaswamy16-Feb-20242:48
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When you watch a game of cricket, you’re always watching two games at the same time. There is, of course, the game as it unfolds on the scorecard: runs, balls, wickets. Then there’s the game that’s shaped by all the subjectivities you bring to it: your nationality, your affection or disaffection for players and teams, the expectations you have from them, and a thousand other things including the pleasure or disgruntlement caused by your most recent meal.There are always two games in play at any given time, and apart from everything else Bazball has done to Test cricket, it has also, perhaps, widened the gap between the game on the scorecard and the game perceived by its viewers.Day two of the Rajkot Test ended with England two down and 238 runs away from India’s first-innings total of 445, with a centurion at the crease.Related
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A lot of Test matches have reached this sort of position, but very, very few have reached it in quite this manner. England have taken just 35 overs to get to 207 for 2. They have batted in a rare and thrilling manner, a manner that may lead the viewer to conclude, via extrapolation of their rates of scoring and losing wickets, that they are in a position of great dominance.The scorecard, though, still says they are two down and 238 runs away from India’s first-innings total. As breathtaking as the rush of their scoring has been, it has been the outcome of heightened risk-taking. The risks may have come off spectacularly so far, but they remain risks, with no guarantee of sustained reward.This is how India view the state of the Test match, going by the words of R Ashwin, who picked up his 500th Test wicket in the midst of England’s charge.”It depends on what the yardsticks are,” Ashwin said, when asked if England’s batting approach had left him feeling more challenged than ever as a spinner. “Honestly, I mean, the yardstick that I would apply is, how well one is bowling, how it is coming out of the hand, how much risk a batsman is having to take.”He took the example of a boundary Ollie Pope hit off Ravindra Jadeja, a squatting, overhead reverse-scoop off a good-length ball on the line of the stumps.Jasprit Bumrah hugs R Ashwin after his 500th wicket•AFP via Getty Images”If you see a batsman sitting down and hitting the ball over slip, you would probably admire [it] yourself and say, that’s the shot he wants to play if he wants to get to me, and all credit to them for doing it. They’re able to take the risk and spread the field and get the singles going. But that’s the way they want to play. We [batted for] four and a half sessions; [if] they want to get it done in two, so be it.”Whether it’s [the bowler] being challenged is how you want to look at it, and honestly, I don’t think it’s flustering us much. And even if you saw, I don’t know how it looks from the outside, [but] when it was 200 for 2, I think [our] guys were pretty relaxed. You know, in a session, there is [the chance of] four or five [wickets] that could come your way.”This is how Test innings often progress. There are long partnerships and periods of bat dominating ball, but one wicket can quickly bring another. Three partnerships accounted for over 80% of India’s total. They believe England’s innings could still follow this sort of pattern, and control figures support their belief.Over their innings, India’s batters managed a control percentage of 86, approximately, while losing a wicket (not including the run-out dismissal of Sarfaraz Khan) every 12 false shots they played. England, so far, have gone at a control percentage of 82, and lost a wicket every 18.5 false shots. That luck may not hold over their entire innings.There have already been clear moments that could have gone India’s way on another day. Jasprit Bumrah nearly found a way through Ben Duckett with a searing yorker but the toe-end of his bat saved him from lbw. Ashwin, in the last over of the day, produced an lbw shout that wasn’t given on field, and, upon review, returned an umpire’s call verdict on pitching line.
“If I have to judge and see the way I am bowling, I wouldn’t be too flustered because they haven’t been able to hit me to different parts [of the ground], which is what will [worry me].”R Ashwin
Ashwin believes these moments will keep coming, and that enough of them could still go India’s way to keep them in the game. He even suggested that the bargain of Bazball – faster scoring at the expense of a certain amount of control – could lower the workload of India’s bowlers.”They are showing a lot of intent, playing like how they would play in a T20 or one-day game,” he told the host broadcaster. “Given us less time to think and also less labour. Have to bowl good balls and expect one of those airy-fairy shots to go to hand.”The dictionary definition of airy-fairy is “impractical and foolishly idealistic”, but Ashwin’s intended meaning was probably just edged or miscued shots. India, he seemed to suggest, would have to keep bowling good balls and producing moments of mis-control.It can be hard for a bowler to know what a good ball is, of course, when any line or length is liable to disappear to the boundary. It takes self-belief and experience, qualities Ashwin has in abundance, to be able to separate process from outcome.In the face of an assault such as England’s on Friday, which left every India bowler bar Bumrah nursing economy rates north of five an over, they almost have to assess themselves like T20 death bowlers: I know I went for a few, but did I bowl to my field and make the batter take risks to access the boundary?”If I have to judge and see the way I am bowling, I wouldn’t be too flustered because they haven’t been able to hit me to different parts [of the ground], which is what will [worry me],” Ashwin said in his press conference. “I am clear on picking where they have to take a risk, such that I’m still bowling my best balls, and I thought even today, I got a really good spell going from the [Pavilion End].Ben Duckett took risks and they paid off handsomely on the day•AFP via Getty Images”Spinners have largely bowled from the Media Box end, and I think I just got one over [from there, and] there was a dismissal opportunity. So I have to try and create opportunities.”Ashwin referred here to the lbw shout against Duckett in the last over of the day. That ball disturbed the top surface of the Rajkot pitch and turned sharply past the outside edge, but Ashwin felt that sort of misbehaviour would remain a rare occurrence for the time being.”At the moment, it seems like the usual, typical Rajkot wicket,” he said. “And it will keep getting slower. The deviation that you’re seeing, the one that is turning, it’s going at a really slow clip. So yeah, I think the way the game is going, if the cracks don’t open up, I think the wicket will continue to stay pretty good for batting.”This has been the case to varying degrees in all three Tests so far in this series, with the pitches – certainly relative to those in other recent India home series – mostly on the flatter end of the spectrum. Ashwin felt this was helping England’s batters play in their preferred manner.”The conditions are dictating the pace of the play in this series,” he said. “Pretty much for the first 3-4 days in all the Test matches – barring that last day in Hyderabad, where driving became really tough – it’s been [the case that] you can literally plonk your foot down and drive on the up, and that’s been the kind of pitches [we have had].
“They are showing a lot of intent, playing like how they would play in a T20 or one-day game. Given us less time to think and also less labour. Have to bowl good balls and expect one of those airy-fairy shots to go to hand.”R Ashwin
“It is supposed to be that way, and [as bowlers you] cash in if there is a fourth-innings possibility and the wicket deteriorates. The way they are playing is high-risk cricket and [as bowlers] you would expect the rub of the green to go your way, like how it did in [the second Test in] Vizag [Visakhapatnam].”England, though, are doing everything in their power to try and keep the rub of the green going their way. They take a lot of risks, but they practice those risks assiduously, and tailor them to their batters’ individual strengths.Alex Carey reverse-swept compulsively when Australia toured India last year, but was out three times in 15 attempts at the shot. Pope has played 28 reverse-sweeps in this series without being dismissed – and this count doesn’t include the squatting reverse-scoops he’s pulled off on multiple occasions. Pope reverse-sweeps so well because he seems to have one for every occasion: he plays one variant with his front leg striding towards the ball and another with his back leg advancing, depending on the line of the ball and the intended direction of the shot.Duckett, similarly, cuts balls few other batters would dare play the shot against because he’s freakishly good at it, blessed with incredible hand-eye coordination to go with a 5’7” frame that turns good lengths into shortish lengths.England don’t just take risks, then, but make every effort to take better risks. But even the best of risks remain risks, particularly against bowling of India’s quality. England have as much faith in the collective efficacy of their risk-taking as India do in their potency with the ball. The scorecard says this match remains in the balance, and both teams know it in their bones.
