Thoughts on the India/England Test series
The critics of Bazball – whatever that might be -are out in force as England lost the series 4-1.
In my opinion they could have lost 1-4 with a more cautious approach.
I go back to the 2017 tour which ended in similar defeat – which I attended – when two Surrey spinners were selected – Zahar Ansari and the 39 year old Gareth Batty – neither making any impression.
By contrast the two spinners Tom Hartley and Bashir could have successful Test careers.
Further we have two openers in Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett who can establish a platform, something not seen since the days of Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss.
Both Crowley and Hartley were backed by Ben Stokes in the face of media criticism.
As for the coverage, I found it dire.
TNT sports had their studio in Sweden.
They lacked a heavyweight presenter like Mark Nicholas or David Gower as Karen Mason was insipid, though analyst Steve Finn incisive.
I often listened to TalkSport.
Their Neil Manthrop is an old pro but Jarrod Kimber and Alex Tudor are poor broadcasters. I also dislike the cliquey use of nicknames by both broadcasters: Alex Tudor was called ‘Tudes’ and Steve Finn ‘Finns’.
Finally, few mention how good this Indian side are.
Jaiswal emerged from the series as a world class batsman, whilst Kuldeep is in the tradition of lethal spin bowlers.
England missed Harry Brook but India could not call upon Virat Kohli. So it was neither a disgrace nor a surprise to lose to them,
