Express News Service
INDORE: It was fascinating listening to Steve Smith talk about why he loves captaining in India. He compared decisions he would make on the field to moves on a chess board. To continue that particular analogy, the King’s Pawn Opening (1. e4) is one of the oldest and most beneficial openings. It’s one of the most popular openings with white as it gives the player immediate control over the centre of the board.
A comparable King’s Pawn Opening to Tests in India is opening with a spinner. You may have lost the toss but on bone-dry surfaces, it’s a way to suss out the strip quickly. If pacers err in line or length, they can go for plenty pretty quickly. The only thing that Smith got wrong on the first morning of the Indore Test, apart from calling wrong at the toss, was opening with Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green. On a surface that has since been rated ‘poor’ by the International Cricket Council (ICC), India had, relatively speaking, motored along to 26 without loss off the first overs.
So, Smith turned to Matthew Kuhnemann. Within a six-ball span, the captain was rewarded as the pitch showed its true colours. Variable bounce, spin, bite and grip. It was all there. With the deck giving all the help, Smith kept rotating the three spinners at his disposal and used them as attacking or defensive options. He also eliminated Green from the bowling group even if there might have been a temptation to go to him because of his high release point (India have struggled against bowlers with high release points in the recent past), it could have further exaggerated the variable bounce on play.
In fact, one of the highlights of Smith’s captaincy in this Test has been the way he has used Kuhnemann, Lyon and Murphy at different points. First, he brought on Kuhnemann with two right-handers at the crease. When Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli were in the middle, he wasted little time in bringing on Nathan Lyon, an off-spinner who has accounted for both of them multiple times. When Kohli showed signs of playing both of them comfortably, he replaced Kuhnemann with Todd Murphy, who has enjoyed a degree of success against Kohli, especially with the arm ball. Off Murphy’s 22nd ball, Kohli was trapped by Murphy.
In the second innings, he took the brave decision of keeping Murphy going from one end even if he wasn’t getting the wickets. His figures of 14-6-18-0 served the purpose of keeping the hosts quiet at a time when Kuhnemann had lost control thanks to Pujara and Shreyas Iyer messing with his lines. Watching Smith ringing the changes was to watch a Grandmaster at work, somebody who was being proactive, a word he used. At some level, it kind of shone a light on Rohit Sharma as well. When you play three spinners, one of the challenges is to get that balance correctly. It’s easy to under-bowl one of them. Unfortunately for Sharma, Axar Patel, the bowler has been under-utilised in this series. That theme continued at Indore where he bowled only 13 overs across two innings. Worse was that 13 overs came across three spells sandwiched by stumps on Day 1. You ask any spinner and they will tell you they like bowling long spells. It allows them to identify the area to bowl on, work the batter, build up a rhythm and keep going.
The left-armer, though, has not been given that luxury by Sharma. He has bowled 39 overs across 11 spells this series for an average of 3.54 overs per spell (roughly 21-22 balls). That’s just not enough. To be fair to Sharma, he did agree that he had under bowled Patel in this series. “Look (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja have bowled really well so I have to continue to make them bowl as much as possible,” he had said before the start of the Test. “If you have three spinners, you know that the third spinner is always under bowled. This time it has been Axar in these two Test matches, you never know who that guy will be in the next two Test matches.”
“Because if guys are getting wickets from one side, both sides rather, you have to continue to bowl them, as simple as that. That’s how it is. When Axar, Ash and Washington (Sundar) played in Ahmedabad against England, Washi was the one who was under bowled. Probably didn’t even bowl too many overs. That’s how it is. When you have guys taking wickets and are in good rhythm, you can sense that they need to bowl longer spells. Like fast bowlers, they take a little bit of time to get into a rhythm. You need those fingers to come good for you. So you need at least 3-4 overs to get into that rhythm.”
There are two things to unpack here. One, what about Patel’s rhythm considering he has not even bowled an average of four overs per spell? Secondly, there have been spells across this series where Ashwin and Jadeja have erred in line and length but have been kept on for longer. Both Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne, after surviving a tricky period, were rotating the strike against both of them. In fact, Ashwin was constantly searching for the right length all through the innings before finding it on the second morning. Compare it to how Smith decided to juggle his three principal weapons at Holkar Stadium. “… ‘we have got three of you. If I take you off, it doesn’t mean you are bowling badly. It’s just that someone else may be able to do a better job at that point of time’,” was the message he had told them after losing the toss. “When you have got three spinners, you have to work them that way and keep them as fresh as possible. I was pleased with the way I handled the three spinners.”
It’s natural for a new captain to have teething problems. This is perhaps one part that Sharma may have to look at before the fourth Test at Ahmedabad, the place where Patel announced himself to the world stage against England.
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