But it is really not the bowling that will turn it around for India as the New Zealand series suggested that India is yet to come to terms with five-bowler theory as there has been times the middle-order has looked brittle whenever Kohli or Rahane has had failures.
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Last week at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Ground, R Ashwin had to settle for only three wickets in 69.3 overs and Amit Mishra conceded upwards of four runs per over in both innings. It was a slow wicket.
England had lost 10 wickets in a session in Dhaka, exposing their frailties against spinners on turning wickets.
“If we continue on that level as we did in Rajkot there’s no reason why we can’t put pressure on their batting with our spinners”. “It’s never easy and you want to try to make it worthwhile by scoring a few runs”, said Cook on Sunday. He noted that it was important to bowl in the right areas and make the batsmen commit errors, but while the Indians tried their best, the Englishmen countered them well. “We tried our best but credit to them for the way they batted”, he explained.
The Indian head coach also insisted that the team selection would be made only after seeing the pitch.
Likening the 19-year-old debutant with Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara, Bayliss said Hameed exactly knows how his game works. “He has always told me that I am a wicket-taking bowler”.
“Our spinners are nowhere near the finished article, but they can all be pleased how they bowled in this game and it was a tough five days”, he noted.
It was Cook’s sixth test hundred against India and he declared his team’s second innings on 260-3 to set India an improbable target of 310. Despite early loss of wickets, Captain Virat Kohli steadied the ship with Ashwin first and then allowed the game to drift towards a draw with Ravindra Jadeja in the end. Our batsmen were in form and had runs under their belt.
“Sometimes you tend to overthink, thinking too much about where the bowler is going to bowl or what he is going to do next to get you out and how much time is left in the day”.
“I’ve seen my daughter for 18 hours”.
He accepted that the first innings didn’t go his way, but that he began to get into rhythm in the second innings when the pitch started to help the spinners a bit.
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‘You need to figure out as captain how comfortable you are with the guys who are going to take the field, how mentally prepared and confident they are about picking up those wickets for you’.
