India v England: Test 4, Day One – Live! | Sport

The alarm sounds strident, but there is a hint of spring and a dash on the night of March. In Ahmedabad, however, there is little relief for England, groundhog on the scene of their two-day beating, the pitch turned, the sun set to shine and warm, 37 degrees at noon.

A virus of the disease has plagued the countryside of England (I didn’t expect to read about Paul Collingwood’s tummy in such detail), as well as the end of the tour-itus starting to get heavy. But there have been no naughty boy nets for England’s hitters who, with five consecutive totals under 200, have endured their worst hitting streak since 1888. Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, 42 wickets and counting, watch and wait.

Joe Root, who has carried this batting lineup across the subcontinent on his slim shoulders, has called for England to be brave. Confident but not reckless. “It’s having that confidence to play the ball in front of you, not having the baggage from the previous installment, not thinking too much about the field, trying to see things as they are.” If they can do that, and find the means to defeat India twice, they will become the first foreign team to draw a series in India since 2012. Dom Bess is expected to play after missing the second and third tests “a tough pill. to swallow, ”with Stuart Broad being the closer most likely to fall.

For India, anything but a defeat earns them a place in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in June, just off the highway between Southampton and Portsmouth. Only if they lose, Australia will infiltrate instead.

India lacks Jasprit Bumrah (personal reasons) but is motivated by criticism of the Ahmedabad field, with R. Ashwin eloquently questioning the definition of good and Virat Kohli dismissive of critics of both the field and the pink ball. “Why didn’t we focus on the fact that the hitters weren’t skilled enough on that field to play properly, and it was a strange show of batting by both teams in a test game?”

Look down for the launch two days ago, read the runes, and see you at 3.45 for teams and launch.