England’s spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel on Monday (March 1) admitted that pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad used for the third Test was “tough” to play on and the tourists didn’t expect the pitch to spin so early, but said their batting was poor against India.
England scored 112 and 81 in the two innings in the recent day-night Test as India’s spin attack led by R Ashwin and Akshar Patel wrecked havoc on the English batting line-up by snaring 19 wickets between them to win the third Test by 10 wickets inside two days in Ahmedabad.
Ahead of the fourth and final Test to be played in the same venue from March 4, Patel said the touring side is always to get spinning surfaces in India and if England had scored more than 200 in their first innings then the outcome of the pink ball Test could have been different.
Patel said in a virtual media conference: “Look, it is India, it is Asia. We expect to get spinning surfaces, maybe we did not expect to take spin as early as it did and hence the line-up we picked. It was a tough pitch to play on and we got on the wrong side of it.”
He added, “In the first innings when we won the toss, 112 were not going to be enough on any surface – spinning, flat, or seaming. We were excited when we bowled India out for 140-odd.
But again it did not click in the second innings. If we had scored 200 or 230 in the first innings, the game could have been different. Pink ball reacted differently and it did not go the way we thought it would go. We had a plan, but it did not quite work.”
The coach also expects a spinning track for the final Test in Ahmedabad but said England is eager to “punch back” from the two straight losses in the ongoing four-match Test series.
He further explained, “The performance of Akshar and Ashwin have been the question of the series really. They have been fantastic and it is now for us to combat them. The conversation is not to go away from being positive and (we are) looking to score.
One thing this England side has done recently is to face and punch against it. I expect the fourth Test match to be on a spinning wicket and we have to get a way to make sure if we win the toss how we are going to put up a decent total. I think we expect and I expect the team to punch back very hard.”
The 40-year-old said of the probable changes can be made in the team for the fourth Test, “Not necessarily. It will be about being smart how we go about it.”
Patel signed off by saying, “The pink ball had so many unknowns really and how it will react in terms of the wicket we did not know. You are never sure how things are going to play in Asia.”
(With PTI Inputs)
