In order to trap the England hitters in their spin, the Indian team management is anticipated to create an even more difficult rank-turner for the second game. But England’s starter, Zak Crawley, said that Visakhapatnam’s surface was a little bit greener than he had initially expected.
Following an unexpected defeat in the opening Test of the five-match series against England in Hyderabad, there have been a lot of talks about the field for the second match, which is scheduled to start in Visakhapatnam on February 2. Notably, despite trailing 190 runs in the first inning, England pulled off an incredible comeback to win the game by a margin of 28 runs, thus conceding India an unexpected loss in the opening match of the series.
“So, the guys say that this wicket looks a little better to seam. Like I said, I haven’t seen it, but they made that claim. News18 cited Crawley as adding, “It’s just a little damper; I think here it seems like they’re a bit greener, so we’ll see what happens there.”
Speaking ahead of time, Zak Crawley discussed England’s sweep tactics against the Indian spinners, revealing that they employ both sweep and reverse sweep depending on the field configuration.
“I believe that when it’s spinning, sweeping and reverse sweeping are good options. Sort of takes the edge off of it. Bite into the pitch like Pope did if you can make it. Additionally, I believe that because there are fewer fields there, the reverse sweep occurs more frequently for us. There appear to be two men out on the leg side at all times. Their reverse sweep probably comes to us just as naturally as a regular sweep, he continued. If they had two men out on the offside, we would probably play the sweep, kind of just attempting to hit in the gaps with the sweep.
Additionally, Zak Crawley stated that Jack Leach is still eligible to play in the second test. Remarkably, the left-arm spinner continued to bowl in the second inning after suffering a knee injury halfway through the match in Hyderabad.
We’ll see in a few days, but you never know with Jack: Zak Crawley
But Leachy, he’s a tough kid. Thus, I’m unsure. We’ll see in a few days, but you never know with Jack. You can’t actually ride him, though. Thus, we’ll see how he does,” Zak Crawley continued.
With KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja both out of the second game, India would have a difficult time rallying in the series. Rohit Sharma, the captain of India, will be keen to disprove his doubters as he starts the second game with an inexperienced batting order.