Issues mounting for India with injuries to Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli absent for personal reasons; Ollie Pope offers England blueprint as he negates home spinners and helps put tourists 1-0 up in Test series; Vizag next destination, with James Anderson pushing to play
Thursday 1 February 2024 08:33, UK
"We could go down in flames," admitted England fast bowler Mark Wood ahead of the series in India. Halfway through the first Test and they were battling an inferno.
With Jasprit Bumrah scorching Ben Duckett and Joe Root and the spinners torching Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes, the tourists were 163-5 in their second innings and still 27 runs behind India's first-innings total. Their hopes seemingly burnt to cinders.
But Ollie Pope ignited the comeback with a knock of 196 that has been classed as one of the best played on the subcontinent, before debutant spinner Tom Hartley, so easily doused in the first innings, incinerated India with a seven-wicket haul as England pulled of a Herculean victory in the dying embers of day four.
"We've given India something to think about," said Wood after the Hyderabad heist. "They now have to come up with a different plan. We've proved it will be a battle and we're not going to give up."
The turnaround win is being ranked among the team's greatest triumphs of all time. The fact Ben Stokes' side came back from the brink is testament to their bravery and belief, the fact they needed to come back highlights that they still have flaws.
England's spinners struggled to offer potency or control in the first innings, looking a grade below India's established trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Hartley was hit for 131 from 25 overs, Rehan Ahmed raided for 105 from his 24.
Hartley's seven-wicket salvo in the second innings does not suddenly make him a world beater - although it does speak volumes for his character, for England's rogue selection of the tall left-armer in the first place and for captain Ben Stokes' backing of him.
But if the tourists have defects, then so do the hosts. Cracks have emerged in India's armour. Injuries are mounting. Problems piling up.
Jadeja (hamstring) and middle-order batter KL Rahul (quad) are out of the second Test in Vizag from Friday, with Jadeja's absence, in particular, a huge blow.
He is a three-dimensional cricketer, averaging 36 with the bat, 24 with the ball and capable of moments of magic in the field. Without him, India will have trouble balancing their side.
The hosts were already shorn of star batter Virat Kohli (personal reasons) and seam bowler Mohammed Shami (ankle). They will not be back until the third Test in Ranchi at the earliest.
An India team that have won 16 home Test series in a row stretching back to 2012 and headed to Hyderabad with 36 victories and just three losses in their previous 46 matches on their own patch do not look quite as bulletproof now. Sourav Ganguly's prediction of 4-0 or 5-0 will not be happening. Not for the home side anyway...
Without Kohli, India's batting line-up remains laced with quality but does not have the same aura nor sheer bloody-mindedness not to get out, with a series of clumsy dismissals on the slog in the first innings costing the hosts an even more substantial lead than 190.
Shubman Gill has mastered one-day international cricket - averaging over 60 from 44 matches - but the Test arena has been more of a struggle with his average in that format dipping below 30 after passing 30 just once in his last 11 innings.
Gill struggled to rotate strike in his first knock against England and eventually hacked Hartley to midwicket, before nudging the same bowler to Pope at silly point to depart for a two-ball duck in the second. Shreyas Iyer also seems like a man finding his Test feet.
There are spin concerns, too.
Not just Jadeja's injury but because he, Ashwin and Axar were made to look mortal by Pope. Ashwin and Axar took a combined 59 wickets as England were demolished on their 2021 tour of India - Jadeja missed that series through injury - but all three were taken apart by Pope's "masterclass" as the visiting vice-captain nullified them with orthodox and reverse sweeps and reverse scoops.
Ashwin and Jadeja shipped more than 100 runs in the second innings, with the entire India spin attack conceding 4.1 runs an over across the third and fourth days.
Kevin Pietersen, perhaps slightly hyperbolically, said that Pope's runs were "destroying India's soul" as the home side became ragged and heads dropped. The intensity Kohli brings in the field was sorely missed.
Pope's batting was in stark contrast to the way a largely sweep-less India meekly folded against Hartley as they failed to chase 231. For the hosts, Kohli's return cannot come soon enough.
I haven't seen a better exhibition of sweeping and reverse sweeping ever in these conditions against that quality of bowling.
England will venture to Vizag with confidence but also questions.
Rehan's lower-order runs proved crucial in Hyderabad - the 28 he scored in the second innings was the same number England won the match by - but he struggled with the ball throughout.
After Root's match figures of 5-120 showed he is comfortably good enough as a spinner, England might consider replacing Rehan with a seamer in either James Anderson or Ollie Robinson.
England will also assess main spinner Jack Leach's bruised left knee, which restricted his ability to bowl in the series opener.
If he is unfit to play, the tourists now have the option of uncapped off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who has finally arrived in India after a laborious visa-securing process.
Another question is what pitches India will prepare? They produced turning surfaces after losing the first Test to England in 2021 and went on to steamroll their opponents 3-1, so may do likewise now.
England may still go down in flames but they were flaming brilliant for the last day-and-a-half in Hyderabad.
Make no mistake, we have a contest on our hands. England were the last side to win a Test series in India. They might now be the next.
Follow over-by-over text commentary from the second Test between India and England, in Vizag, live on skysports.com and the Sky Sports App from 3.30am on Friday (first ball at 4am).
