India amass a lead of 175 runs despite throwing their wickets away
Notes on Jadeja, Root vs KL, Leach, and picking batters based on conditions
England started the day with a wicket, sadly they ended the day flapping like a fish on a boat. Jaiswal gave up a chance at a ton, KL too, Ravi still holding out some hope.
But India scored pretty easily all day, and then just coughed up wickets when no one was expecting it. They exceeded my par score of 400 comfortably, and Axar finished the day slapping it everywhere. England bowled as if the concept of bowling was new to them. They were not sure whether they preferred the full toss or short ball, so they tried both. They had no reviews, so of course every time they had a decent LBW shout, it was given not out.
They only had a medium terrible day because India kept giving them wickets. At one stage Stokes missed a catch that went into the sun, he lost it, only for the ball to land safely next to him. And he did all that with sunglasses on the back of his head. It was that kind of day for England.
Ravindra Jadeja offers flexibility at home (SAK)
I thought the way that Ravindra Jadeja batted today was really interesting. Batters who don’t have normal development, for example - all-rounders, often score with rough gear changes. He had scored 45 off 68 balls till tea, and 36 off 87 after tea. He went after the left-arm finger spinners before tea, and when England bowled better lines and lengths after tea he was just making sure that he stayed in.
You have to say that he has been thinking like a batter for quite some time. He’s had several phases in his batting career - the triple hundreds in first-class cricket early on, the guy batting down the order who didn’t do too well, and now he’s a genuine number 6, who can shift to number 7 when Rishabh Pant is back. At home, he also has a brilliant support cast till number 9.
In the last six years at home, he’s batted a lot at number 6. And he’s even batted in the top five a couple of times because of him being a left-hander, or for declaration batting against South Africa in 2019.
He was more of a batter who added value as a number 8 before 2018, but that did not allow the same level of all-round flexibility in the team. The fact that he has been such a good batter in these six years, just allows India to play another spinner.
He wasn’t terrible with the bat till 2017, but he wasn’t game-changing either. He batted quickly from 2018-19, but he has played more like a frontline batter since 2021. It’s just really hard to get him out now. He didn’t change the game today, but he ensured that they took the game far away from England.
We also looked at Jadeja’s runs per innings (RPI) at home, just to factor in any boosts from not-outs. He had 10 not outs in 35 innings till 2017, and 5 not outs in 20 innings since.
India gave away wickets (JK)
Sometimes you look at the scores, and things don’t add up. But if you were watching this Test, it was clear that India played a huge part in all of their wickets.
Rohit Sharma has had some issues with Jack Leach. But in this case, it felt like he volunteered his wicket coming down the wicket and getting absolutely near the pitch. The intent was great, but Rohit was coming before the ball was bowled, allowing Leach to perhaps change his length. Or it was always going to be there, and Rohit came down at the wrong ball. Either way, the error was his.
Ben Stokes did some fancy field changes before this ball from Root to Jaiswal, so he gets some credit. And Root also bowled a fine delivery. But the fact it was caught and bowled was because Jaiswal was trying to force it a little. Look at the bat face here.
Shubman Gill got a half volley on leg stump, and it was too close to him to play an aggressive shot, but he already committed. Still a little unlucky to be caught, but he played a bigger part than Tom Hartley did in this dismissal.
Shreyas Iyer got a wrong’un on a length he picked, and he decided to swing it over midwicket. His issue was just connection, he didn’t get enough of the ball. You could also question with all the bad balls being bowled that he needed to take on this perfectly non-shit ball from Ahmed.
KL Rahul got a half-tracker and pulled it straight out to a fielder. Again, hard to think the bowler played any role. KL failed to hit the ball out of the park.
KS Bharat tried a sweep to a ball that did not bounce at all. I think the shot was okay and the ball was fine, pitching on the stumps and straightening.
I love every single thing about this dismissal. Of course, all runouts are funnier when both batters are at the same end. But this one gets better because of what happened.
But here is what I think happened. Ashwin knew Hartley was a left-hander, so once it went to his right, he took off. Jadeja wouldn’t have had Hartley in that position when he was batting, because he bats goofy footed.
He calls the run, and Jadeja takes off. But when he turned to see the ball he saw it going to the right side of the fielder, and decided there was no run.
Then Jadeja decides to go back. It doesn’t look like he called no, or if he did, Ashwin didn’t hear. And so two of the greatest modern-day spinners are side by side. Not in a good way.
Not sure what happened with the ball, but Jadeja was always very cautious with this. Clearly, he didn’t back Ashwin’s call, which was right because Ashwin easily made the run. The ball was still in his hand when Ashwin was going to be easily home, and he started on the backfoot.
Now, why this is funny, is because outside of his fielding skill and athleticism, the main reason Jadeja gets so many run-outs is that he is left-handed and that causes miscommunication or people taking runs that aren’t there. To see the same thing happen to him (well, Ashwin) was quite funny.
KL and Root (JK)
KL Rahul batted very well today before he hit a pie to deep midwicket. But I wanted to focus on something that happened early between him and Root.
England started the day with Joe Root, which seemed like a reaction to their forgetting he could bowl yesterday. I do think the three spinners in this side are there to stop him from over-bowling early in the series.
They need him to bat, right? The bowling is more of a bonus, and it’s an important part of their plan. You would like him to be the third-best spinning option at best, but England has a leg-spinner that still needs time, a part-timer they are overburdening with 41 first-class wickets, and Leach doesn’t seem quite right after hurting his knee. Or his hamstring, which he spent a lot of time touching.
So Root starts today and he gets Jaiswal out. Worth noting that in first class or Tests, Jaiswal shows no weakness against offspin. But he kind of drop-kicked the ball back to Root, which might have something to do with his bottom hand.
But they kept Root on, and really the only time they had a tweaker who looked like keeping a lot of pressure on was this early spell of Root. And it includes him staying on to the right-handers.
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