England will "not panic" over India's mystery spinner
These were the words of Graham Thorpe, England's batting coach after Kuldeep Yadav once more ripped through their top order in a man of the match display that saw India take a comfortable 1-0 series lead in the ODIs.
I didn't watch the game on account of the fact that it was a working day and by the time that I did get back home India were comfortably on their way towards victory.
However, i've watched the highlights and I think there is probably cause for some panic amongst England supporters and their batsmen. Thorpe also claimed that "From what I’m hearing from my chats with them(the England batsmen), it’s not like they can’t pick him". Really? Then if they are picking him they are playing some god awful shots!
Below are the dismals of Joe Root and Johnny Bairstow, arguably England's best 2 batsmen.
Joe Root has missed that ball by about 4-5 inches. You can't tell me he knew which way that ball was spinning!
Similarly Jonny Bairstow tried to play a shot through mid-wicket to the wrong-un and was out lbw on review. Batsmen make mistakes but for me I can't believe that any player in their right mind would attempt that shot to a left arm wrist spinner turning the ball that much if they had picked the delivery.
England head to Lords for the 2nd game, knowing they must win to keep the series alive. It will be a tough task for England not only due to their problems against spin but also because they have only won 5 of their last 15 ODIs at the home of cricket. England will hope that with football not able to come home this summer, cricket can.
I think the English batsmen must use their feet in order to nullify Kuldeep's effectiveness or employ the sweep if it is there to be hit. They just can't try and block every single ball.
The problem is if you can't pick him then those shots become high risk. Like most wrist spinners he is likely to give you a few balls to hit. England's batsmen have to put away the bad balls and rotate the strike. Put some pressure back on him and see he handles it
These young leggies are part of the great Sharne Warne's legacy. He became an inspiration to them including kuldeep, rashid khan, Shadab Khan and many more. Well to be honest to play spin is a sub-continent art and england have struggled to cope with the spin. Although Adil Rashid himself is a fine leggie and I'm proud to see two players with Pakistani heritage in the team, the english batsmen would have practiced with him bowling. Let's see how they react to kuldeep in the rest of the series.
Yes you are right the influence Shane Warne has had on these young leggies. But the English batsmen except Stokes and Buttler who have faced Kuldeep in the IPL are currently confused to pick up his variations.
Yes, Warne certainly brought the art of leg spin back into cricket.
To be honest in England we have several problems with spin. Firstly we don't generally produce pitches that are good for spinners, instead they tend to favour seam and swing bowling. Many county teams don't include a spinner and if they do their role is to contain opposition batsmen while the quick bowlers have a rest. Coupled with this is then the problem that we don't have captains who know how to use spin bowlers effectively to win you games (I think Adil Rashid's test career is a good example of this). Finally this lack of spin in the domestic game means that our batsmen don't get much of a chance to look at high quality slow bowling.
The ECB is trying to change this pattern by doing things like removing the coin toss from 4 day games and penalising teams for creating poor pitches. Lets hope that England can see some positive results from this.
Adil Rashid is now a key member of the team in the white ball game and any side looking to be successful needs a wrist spinner. I have a lot of time for Moeen Ali he has great talent and is the kind of player who can win a cricket match on his own. It would be nice if he were a little more consistent but i think England will include him in the Test team this summer.
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