England should get combination right
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After a team goes through a big loss, the challenge for both captain and coach is how to pick them up. Dwelling on the disappointment from the side’s last performance is never helpful. But the captain and coach need to identify the lessons from that defeat, and start all over again.
Firstly with selection. Here England need to look at the balance of their bowling attack. In the first test their seamers were ineffectual and lacked early penetration. It’s very likely that they could include the extra spinner in Monty Panesar. The question they need to answer though is who are their best four bowlers and what combination do they need to take into the match that will get them 20 wickets.
On occasions, teams visiting India have always looked to favor playing 2 spinners alongside their 2 best seam bowlers. As we are all aware, Indian batsmen are however, experts at handling spin. So the critical question to be answered is “is your second spinner good enough?” “In match conditions for the next game, does he rank among your four best bowlers?”
Previously Panesar has played eight tests against India taking 19 wickets at 53 with an economy rate of around 3. They are not world-beating stats so his inclusion in the final 11 is expected but may not be certain.
There will be an enforced change in England’s batting lineup with Ian Bell’s absence but their batting woes seem more technical than selectorial nature. In the six tests outside England this year Abdur Rehman, Rangana Herath and Pragyan Ojha have taken 47 English wickets at 17.5.
This is an obvious problem but within the England camp, they have perhaps the best man qualified outside the sub-continent to solve it. During my tenure as India coach, Andy Flower was one of the best players of spin we encountered. He was sound in defence and accurate in his shot selection, every spinner had to earn his wicket. So it is not as if the England batsmen do not have enough depth of knowledge in tackling spin on their side.
England is lucky to have Flower on their side to help them with spin. Yet given the proliferation of specialist coaches around international cricket teams these days, I’ve always wondered why there aren’t more former batting greats from Indian, Pakistan or Sri Lankan, who have found a role in being a specialist spin bowling/batting coach. On the evidence of recent results on the sub-continent, a number of teams could do with some expertise in this area.
(360 Corporate Relations)
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