The Indian spinners have been thrown off by the new attitude and approach of the English batters who are using the reverse sweep to great effect. Previous teams that came to India used the orthodox sweep as the ‘get out of jail’ shot and fell into the trap as the top edge wasn’t too far away and the danger of being Leg Before Wicket was always there. The use of the reverse sweep and the lack of turn and bounce on the pitches has neutralised India’s spinners and they have struggled to contain the opposition. That Jasprit Bumrah is the main dangerman tells you the effectiveness or lack of, of the Indian spinners. For England too, the new ball bowlers Jimmy Anderson and Mark Wood have looked far more threatening than the spinners though Tom Hartley’s haul of nine wickets on his Test debut secured for England a victory that looked impossible after India had posted a 400-plus score in the first innings. That win has given the England team even more belief that they can be victorious on this tour. By the time this column comes out, the third Test match will have moved forward a fair bit and more than anything else, the result will depend more on how the Indian batters bat in the second innings when there could well be more turn for the spinners than has been seen so far at Rajkot. Whatever the result, this England batting is worth going miles to see. They are rewriting the approach to Test match batting and showing how exciting and thrilling it can be.

Also Read: Wah, Jaiswal!

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Better late than never 

It was good to see the Indian team wear black armbands on Day Three of the Test match to respect the memory of Dattajirao Gaekwad who had passed away a couple of days before the Rajkot Test match began. Better late than never. Dattajirao was captain of the Indian team that toured England in 1959.  The Australian team, even if a relative of a player passes away, the whole team wears a black armband to show solidarity with their teammate. This bonding is incredible and one of the reasons why Australian teams have always been close units.

Congratulations to Ravichandran Ashwin on capturing his 500th Test wicket. What a tremendous cricketer he has been. One of the finest thinkers in the game and always willing to try something new and different, be it a run-up, delivery action and of course, deliveries to bamboozle the batter. He should have been honoured with the India captaincy a couple of years back when there were two India teams playing around the same time. Well done, Ashwin, and wish you many more wickets, newer deliveries and different actions in the future.

Professional Management Group