Former Pakistan captain Rameez Raja lashed out at England’s team management for their player rotation policy, which he believed was the reason for their defeat to India in the second Test, and said that there was no need to tinker with the winning combination of the first Test.
England cricket team thumped Virat Kohli-led Team India in the first Test by 227 runs of the ongoing four-match Test series.
However, going into the second Test match, which Team India won by 317 runs, England followed their rotation policy and made four changes to their team bringing in Stuart Broad, Olly Stone, Ben Foakes and Moeen Ali to replace James Anderson, injured Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler and Dom Bess respectively.
Inferring the rotation policy of England cricket team former Pakistan skipper Rameez Raza lashed out at England team management for resting James Anderson and said that at the end of the day you need to take 20 wickets and which is not possible if you keep changing the winning combination.
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“There was no need to use something like a rotation policy to rest James Anderson. He made use of the reverse swing exceedingly well. There was no need to tinker with the winning combination (of the first Test).
At the end of the day, you need to take 20 wickets to win a Test but if you change the combination which was going to make it possible then it will always be difficult,” Rameez Raza said on his YouTube channel.
Earlier Rameez Raja had predicted England’s defeat just by seeing their selection for the second Test against India.
Addressing the same Raja said that he had already predicted that England can’t win this Test as their selection was very poor and because of that only they lost the match.
“I’m no fortune teller, nor do I consider myself the Nostradamus of cricket who can predict everything by looking at his crystal balls. At the same time, I’m not someone who says anything by fluke. But I had predicted that whatever happens England can’t win this Test as their selection was very poor and they lost the match because of it,” he said.
Rameez Raja, 58, said that England team focusing too much on data analysis before the second Test match whilch led to their downfall.
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“Most importantly, I still believe in gut feeling. So many things have been tried to complicate the game of cricket. You sometimes base your selection just by looking at a bowler’s record against a particular opposition batsman.
“It was not as if the match was being played in some other venue. It was happening in the same place. They should have strengthened their spin department. But they are so much depended on data that completely overlook the present scenario and game awareness,” he said.
Raja pointed out that England should have played an extra spinner in place of injured Jofra Archer but instead, they went with Olly Stone.
“They have basically suffered because of wrong selection. Instead of playing an extra spinner in place Archer they played a fast bowler who was never going to bring reverse swing into effect because of his high-arm action,” he concluded.
