Zak Crawley admits that England may need to be more proactive as a hitting unit to overcome another spin-friendly surface in Ahmedabad this week, but is confident that a reversion to red ball cricket may remove some of the challenges associated with pink from the last week. Ball test, particularly those posed by left arm spinner, Axar Patel.
Patel, who now has 18 wickets at 9.44 in his two-test career, fired Crawley twice in Test 3, including England’s second-inning first ball, to set in motion a collapse to 81 total and an eventual two days. failure.
Nine of Patel’s 11 wickets were pitched or tossed, and 20 out of 30 throughout the game, as hitters on both sides were constantly hit for their rhythm off the court, as if the pink ball’s glossy lacquer was helping her. to slide faster than a conventional red ball could have.
And while Crawley expects little change to the prevailing conditions in Ahmedabad, where anything other than an England victory will ensure India’s progression to the World Trials Championship final, he believes England must keep faith in the plans for game that earned him a memorable victory in the first. Try in Chennai, even if they have to adapt them as the match progresses.
“I think it will be a very similar release this week. Why wouldn’t it be like this?” Crawley said. “It wasn’t easy to score, sure. But it was the same for both sides and they played very well. We had our chance, we hit first and we started well, but unfortunately we didn’t play as well as we needed to.” to.
“But if it’s the same pitch, I think it will be a little easier [this time]”he added.” I felt that the pink ball was a bit harder and therefore it skidded quite fast so both sides received as many lbw wickets and they were thrown.
“[Axar] Sure you still have that ball in your arsenal and it will still be a huge threat with it, but it may not slide at the same pace as the pink ball, in which case we don’t need to change too much.
“But if it looks like it’s going to be just as tough, and it’s played the same way with a drift and a spin, we may need to be more proactive, [otherwise] just play your natural game. “
Crawley himself provided some of England’s most proactive bats of the winter on the first morning of Test 3, as he ran to 68 balls of half a century with ten fours, before England lost their last eight wickets for 38 to be thrown for bowling. 112 in the middle of the afternoon session.
And while he acknowledged that his good start was made possible, in part, by an early diet of sewing bowling, he said he would still feel very confident of that performance, particularly after hitting a high score of 13 in four innings in Sri Lanka. leg of the tour, before the wrist injury that caused him to miss both tests in Chennai.
“I did my best to face the spikers, but it was good to score some runs anyway,” he said. “Under these conditions, you need to have a clear game plan before you go in there, and you also need a lot of luck. But just spending time in between and looking for a sighter for your bowlers, I feel like I’ve improved game plans now, and I’m sure I’m sure I’m getting into this game. “
However, the focus of Patel’s left arm has been a constant problem for Crawley all winter. Lasith Embuldeniya was eliminated by left arm in his four innings in Sri Lanka, and has scored just 30 runs of the 73 balls he faced from both pitchers, six times.
But just as Patel’s partner R Ashwin has proven to be a particular challenge for England’s lefties, including Ben Stokes, whom he has now fired 11 times in testing, Crawley rejected the suggestion that it is unusually vulnerable to challenge. turning of the left arm.
“I don’t think it’s a big problem,” he said. “They threw some good balls at me and I faced a lot of spins with my left arm. If I’m facing spins from both ends all the time, I’m going to go out to one of the spinners, unless I get 200 not out.
“You have to get out somehow, and one of them will be a secondary player and the other a left point guard. And for a right hitter, the left point guard will be more of a challenge.
“A ball is going to skid and attack the stumps, and if I miss it, I will go out, while with Ashwin, amazing bowler as we all know, if one goes head-on, I will lose it. Those are just the difficulties right-handers face. And that’s why lefties find it so difficult against Ashwin. “
It was a measure of the challenge England faced in Ahmedabad that even their most successful spin player, Joe Root, struggled to prevail, achieving scores of 17 and 19 after opening the series with a 218 win at Chennai.
Root was also England’s most effective pitcher in Test 3, claiming a remarkable 5-for-8 in 6.2 overs, but Crawley insisted his captain felt no burden to “carry” his teammates.
“He’s an amazing player, but he loves all of that,” he said. “I don’t think he feels like he’s charging us at all. He loves being the best player on our team, and one of the best in the world, and contributing with the ball and as a captain.”
“We all know how tough it has been,” he added. “They have great players on their side and they have also fought for runs, so it’s not like they’re scoring millions and we didn’t score any. It was a very low scoring game, especially the last game. So we still have a lot of confidence in our ability, and it’s all a learning curve.
“There is definitely a way back [into the series]. We are just one game behind, we won a great first test match. It’s going to require us to get a good lead in the first inning, and that will require us to hit really well. Our bowlers have been doing well, taking them out for 145, so if we can replicate that, and then get a good lead, that will put them under a lot of pressure.
“They would surely be very disappointed with a tied series, and we would be very happy with that. It will be amazing if we can get four out of six test matches.”
Andrew Miller is UK editor for ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @miller_cricket
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