Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has backed the team management’s decision to use two spinners in the ongoing second Test between England and India at Lord’s.
From the beginning of the ongoing rain-marred Lord’s Test, India runs under pressure continuously. After getting all-out for just 107 runs in the first innings, India needed to bundle out the hosts as early as possible.
At one stage, the English team was also struggling on 131/5. But the 189-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes helped the hosts to get out from the stressful situation and take the driving seat of the match. At the end of the day three of this Lord’s Test, England was batting on 357/6 as they have a huge 250-run lead over India.
Indian bowlers performed very well in the first session of the third day but failed to continue in the next sessions. Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya claimed that the ball stopped its movement after lunch and Woakes & Bairstow utilise that condition perfectly to take the game away.
Pandya said after the end of day three, “Nothing happened (after lunch). That was the problem. As a bowling unit, we tried but all of a sudden the ball stopped swinging and they – Woakes and (Jonny) Bairstow – took the game away. It happens – I’ve seen in Tests. You get four or five wickets quickly and then you get one partnership. Even with our batting line-up, it has happened many times. It’s just a part of the game.”
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In the Indian innings, none of the Indian batsmen reached the 30-run mark as Ravichandran Ashwin (29) and the skipper Virat Kohli (23) were the only Indian batsmen to reach the 20-run mark. Pandya claimed that any team would perform in the same fashion what India did, while England had the better condition for batting.
Pandya said, “Any team would have got the same score which we got because playing in those conditions (was tough), a little drizzle was there, and wicket got a little wet as well. Today the conditions were different. When we bowled today, there was proper sunlight. The wicket was the ideal one, which we would have expected on the first day. But because of the conditions, the pitch started doing a lot.”
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India faced one pacer shortage in that important innings of the Test match while the spin-duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav were ineffective on the day. However, Pandya has backed the selection of two spinners and believes the three pacers, including him, are enough for this game.
Pandya said on this, “Obviously they (team management) had some thought behind it (picking the second spinner). I don’t get into that too much. I think three pacers (including him) were enough to be honest. We did enough and we bowled properly. We gave whatever we had to give. As I told you, today’s wicket was the wicket we expected and it was a proper call.”
He further believes that if the Lord’s Test ran for full five days, the spinners would be able to play a crucial role.
Pandya claimed, “If this was a five-day game, spinners would’ve come into use. But because of the rain and everything, it was short and there’s not many footmarks and it was not gripping that much. If this was a five-day game, things would have been different.”
While Pandya lost his wicket on just 11 runs in the first innings, he has taken two wickets (2/66) in ongoing England’s first innings of this Test.
Talking about his role, Pandya said, “If I am batting, I think as a batsman and if I am bowling, I think as a bowler. I don’t have any one particular role. My role when I bowl, I like to keep it tight and try to make sure that the batsman make mistakes. I don’t try much stuff. Keep it tight and let’s see what they do. And we know that they love to play shots and playing like that you will tend to make one mistake. We were expecting that they will (make mistakes).”
