“Attack is the best form of defence”. And England attacked and attacked and pulled off one of the greatest heists on Indian shores in recent memory in Hyderabad to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series last Sunday.
India looked meek and a collapse of the finest batting order ensued as everyone fell victim to Tom Hartley’s spin, as the debutant went on to scalp a seven-for with ease.
Former England skipper Alastair Cook stated that it was always in England’s books to take India by surprise and show them their commitment to taking chances to attack, especially in this era of ‘Bazball’ they indulge in.
“I said before the series it would be very interesting to see how India cope with the willingness to attack spin that the England batsmen will show. We knew it was going to happen and it is confrontational as a captain because there’s not much you can do,” said Cook in TNT Sports.
“They’re so used to winning games, they [thought], ‘This won’t happen for much longer.’ When Ollie Pope kept playing the reverse sweep, Rohit didn’t change the field for a while because he thought, well, stats say that if you play a high-risk shot against world-class bowling, the odds are stacked in [the bowlers’] favour.”
Cook also exclaimed that the absence of an experienced batter in the crease such as Virat Kohli might have also played a role in the collapse that followed in the second innings as India were chasing down the target of 231 set by England.
“What we saw – and whether that was because Virat Kohli wasn’t there – with a bit of inexperience in their middle-order and in the field, they didn’t really know where to turn to or who to look at…They did look a little bit all at sea.”
Well, it seems like atleast one of the Indian batters seems to have learnt from their mistakes, as Yashasvi Jaiswal continues to plunder the English bowlers and put up a stellar double century today in the first innings of the second Test at Visakhapatnam.
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