3rd Test Report: Root's England succumb to wily Ashwin, accurate Axar in contest of bowlers

Not five, not 10, but as many as 17 wickets fell on the second-day pitch at Motera and India trounced England by a margin of 10 wickets. The colossal margin of the win by India is ironical as the game did not pan out to be a contest between the batsmen of one side and the bowlers of the other, instead, it was reduced to which among both teams will bat more poorly on the surface that appeared threatening, although a lot of wickets came off the deliveries that did not turn and went straight on or kept on going according to their angles.

At the end of the third innings that happened just around the scheduled Dinner break on the second day, England handed India a target of mere 49 runs— at target well accomplished by the openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma who batted with supreme confidence and flair under lights against the unlikely English spin twins of Jack Leach and Joe Root. 

Chasing a target well within their sight handed them an opportunity to bat without having to worry about a lot of stuff surrounding the pitch and balls were treated on their merit— a usual craft of batsmanship that was rarely on display from the batsmen across the dressing rooms in all the three finished innings before the final one by Rohit and Gill.

The day belonged to spinners from both sides. Axar Patel shone brightly even in the sunlight in Ahmedabad with his impeccable accuracy while the variations, both natural and from the hand of Ashwin were too good for the whole English batting line up.

England made a dream start into the second day with Leach finding Ajinkya Rahane going back to a ball that skidded from a length and stuck his pad. While there can be divided opinions on his shot selection, the execution was undeniably shoddy and the Indian vice-captain went back to the pavilion, and for the Indian fans, into another slump after a good innings in the last game.

Rahane’s wicket brought Rishabh Pant in the middle, and while fans were getting ready for another round of duel between him and the left-arm spinner Leach, English skipper Root trusted his abilities with spinning balls against the three left-handers slotted in the lower Indian middle order.

The job was well done by Root as he brought a sense of chaos and total mayhem with his turning balls. Pant was edged behind on a ball he should not have poked, Washington Sundar was bowled with an absolute jaffa while Axar Patel’s attempt to break free and take the game to his off-spin found Dominic Sibley at the short cover position. 

Root was looking menacing with the ball turning from good length areas and while he was celebrating wickets one after another, a sense of guilt and repentance of not playing Dominic Bess must have crossed between his two ears. On a pitch and in a crucial game where Root was expected to lead the team with the bat in his hand, he was leading the team off the ground but with the ball with which he claimed a figure of 6.2-3-8-5.

From the overnight score of 99/3, India slipped to 145 all out and gained a lead of only 33 runs when they looked threatening for a lot more at the end of the first day’s play. 

However, for England, the lead of 33 runs was significant and Virat Kohli missed no opportunities to make it look like a lot more than how many it was. Axar Patel, England’s tormentor-in-chief was the first man tasked to go at the tourists, and he started off on a similar note to the first innings. 

The only good looking English batsman in the first innings—Zak Crawley was done in on the very first ball, while a nervous Jonny Bairstow was adjudged LBW on the very next ball, but survived as DRS found the ball bouncing over the stumps. There was no lack of spirit in Axar’s bowling and the next ball breached Bairstow’s defence and the left-arm spinner did not even need any of the umpire’s nod to erupt in joy.

Another opener Dom Sibley, who has been known for showing guts to fight out tough situations in a game, threw his wicket by playing an ugly hoick across the line off Axar. The shot was attempted in pure helplessness as his limitations with the bat against spin have been brutally exposed by Axar’s relentlessness and Ashwin’s crafts. The 89 he scored in the first innings of the first innings to set up the game with Joe Root would now appear as a stuff of the wildest dream.

The next man in—Ben Stokes started to open up his shoulders against his nemesis—Ashwin who had already got him out on 10 occasions. The duo was a dangerous element for India and kept on chipping away at the lead and for a brief period of time, they started to look comfortable.

There was enough assistance to spinners and neither Axar and nor Ashwin got flustered by the solid defence of Root and aggressive approach by Stokes. Finally, Ashwin got the better of Stokes with an innocuous arm for the 11th time in his career, while Root too became another victim of a ball that did not turn while he was playing for a lot of it.

After the fall of Root and Stokes, there was not much other batsmen could do on that pitch that had already done much damage to the mindset of English batsmen. If anything was left to be embarrassed for the tourists, Ollie Pope was made to look like a soldier who jumped into a war without having any sense of combat by Ashwin. Having bowled him round the wicket with a one that kept on going with the arm, Ashwin took the help of natural variation while coming over the wicket in the second innings, and Pope could not answer the clarion calls by the England team and was left embarrassingly flummoxed looking at his stumps rattled.

In the process of a complete capitulation by the English batting order, Ashwin breached a special milestone of 400 Test wickets and stood behind only the great Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of taking fewer games to go past the landmark. He finished the game with 401 Test wickets from 77 games compared to 72 taken by the great man from Sri Lanka.

In his career spanning almost a decade, Ashwin has risen with every game he has played for India, especially at home. His inevitability with the ball gives India a completely different outlook and competitive edge in games such as the third Test against England when batsmen fail to rise to the occasion.

Axar Patel picked up 11 wicket-haul in his maiden Test match at home and the gesture from Kohli to both Ashwin and Axar at the boundary line when the duo was getting off the field after bowling England out on 81 showcased how badly India needed them to come good on this pitch.

The day was packed with a lot of action, but the balance of the game was tilted too much towards the bowlers and it will not go down well with pundits and critics who had their eyes set on this pitch after the exaggerated amount of turn and bounce on offer in the last Test at Chepauk.

India have been apologetic about producing pitches that have supported spin from the very first day in order to take the uncertainties around the toss out of the equation and there is no evidence to suggest anything will change in the next game in terms of the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.