2nd Test: Almost seeing a little bit of the fear of Bazball, says Cook on India’s batting in second innings
Visakhapatnam, Feb 4: Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook believes India became cautious in the back end of their second innings due to the fear of Bazball. On day three, India were comfortably placed at 211-4 in their second innings, with Shubman Gill having made his third Test century.
More importantly, it was Gill’s first hundred as a No.3 batter in Tests, after suffering a lean patch and pressure being there on him to justify his place in the playing XI. But after that, Gill fell as his reverse sweep off Shoaib Bashir took a glove edge to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.
Axar Patel was trapped lbw by Tom Hartley, while K.S Bharat, in a bid to break the scoring drought, mistimed his pull to wide mid-on off Rehan Ahmed and Kuldeep Yadav top-edged a slog-sweep to mid-wicket off Hartley.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah shared a stand of 26 runs for the ninth wicket but took 12 overs for the partnership to build. Ashwin took time before getting three boundaries off Rehan, as he and Bumrah curiously didn’t attempt much aggressive shots.
Eventually, Bumrah edged to gully off Hartley, falling for a 26-ball duck and Rehan ended India’s innings when Foakes took a sharp catch of a faint outside edge coming off Ashwin’s bat, as the hosts lost their last six wickets for 44 runs.
“You’re almost seeing a little bit of the fear of Bazball. They’re 400 runs ahead, but in the last half an hour they had Ashwin blocking it almost as if every run was so important and you think if it were against any other side, sides I’ve led before and all that, this Indian side would be trying to crash this ball around the park with the tail and get bowling.”
“There’s just something about this side which has caused a bit of chaos in the opposition, and India are so wary of this. The chances of England chasing 400 in the subcontinent in the fourth innings are very, very low, but they just know that if Crawley gets going, Stokes gets going, Root gets going, it’s happened to them in the past,” said Cook to TNT Sports.
Cook, who captained England to a 2-1 series win in India in 2012, also feels that India not winning a Test match at home in their last three Tests, might have also played a role in their defensive batting in the fag end of their second innings, which also spilled over on their bowling tactics before stumps.
“It may also be a little bit of confidence in this India side, they’re not playing their best cricket, so they’re just giving themselves that extra bit of protection (with the bat). We saw it in that last session, I cannot remember an Indian side, in the last four or five overs, not having any fielders round the batters for their spinners on the third evening.”
“Not to have a short-leg or silly point, It is almost mind-boggling the effect this has had on the opposition. No side has ever got near this sort of total on the subcontinent. We're only talking about it as a possibility because of what Ben Stokes has drilled into the side.”
England ended day three at 67/1 in 14 overs, in a chase of 399. Though they lost Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley remains not out on 29, alongside the promoted Rehan Ahmed, who’s unbeaten on nine, with England needing 332 more runs for an astonishing victory in what is the toughest challenge of the Bazball era so far.
Cook believes Crawley will be a crucial figure in England’s chase.
“Zak Crawley is going to play such an important part tomorrow. His ability to score at the rate he does and how hard he can be to bowl at, as such a boundary hitter, he'll play an important part in the morning.”
“I don't want to write England off because people have done that before and I'll hold my hands up, I did in the first Test when they were 190 behind. That took a special innings from Ollie Pope and it's going to need a genius innings. They do have the potential to do it.”