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Moeen Ali opts out, England bring Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood for Pink Ball Test

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After suffering a crusing defeat in the second Test of the series, England have announced their 16-man squad for this Test of the series scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad. It will be a day-night Test match, and England have brought back wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow who was rested for the first half of the series while the all-rounder Moeen Ali who played in the last game at Chepauk has opted out of the tour and will return home to spend some time with his family.

“Moeen has chosen to go home. He obviously feels he wants to be home with his family and we have to respect that. “It’s been a tough tour for him. It’s come to a point where he feels he needs to get out of the bubble. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision. We have to respect it,” skipper Root said on Tuesday.

The tourists have also brought the pacer Mark Wood in the squad for the pink-ball Test while Jofra Archer who missed the second Test due to elbow injury has also been retained in the squad for the third Test.

England’s rotation policy came under scrutiny when Anderson was made to sit our of the last Test and Stuart Broad played in the team with four changes in the playing XI from the first Test. 

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2nd Test Report: Masterful Rohit, ruthless Ashwin, relentless spinners hand India series-levelling win

The version of India that every fan and cricket experts were expecting to see before the start of the series, finally arrived, although a Test match late. While the last game proved to be a rather uncharacteristic game for the Indians which surprised many, the second Test saw the ruthlessness and complete domination by the hosts as the buoyant England team capitulated completely in both the innings to hand India a chance to come roaring back in the series and the race for the World Championship Final. There were many architects for India on a pitch that sparked a wide range of debates from the experts across the world, but the hosts had a point to prove that they are a better side in their own conditions and the occasion could not have been greater when the series and the reputation of being invincible at home were at stake. Rohit stood a class apart playing a splendid inning of 161 while Ashwin taught the Englishmen the art of both bowling and batting on such pitches, while Rahane and Pant chipped in valuable contributions in the first innings. Rohit Sharma was exemplary to start off the proceedings and he was under serious pressure after trails of poor scores in the first Test and the two Tests against Australia. On a pitch that had seen the better of his other teammates who have had better credentials in Test matches, Rohit set a template for the batsmen on how to bat on such pitches, and still, he remained the highest scorer till the end of the game. In some sort, it was a career-defining innings from him where he proved the point why the team management keeps on backing him even when he fails to convert big and throws his big wicket in pursuit of expansive shots. Ajinkya Rahane was brilliant as well and the confidence Kohli had shown on him before the Test match was repaid with a partnership with Rohit that neutralised and battered the England spinners. England were guilty of being accurate on the first day and the score of 300 runs on the first day was already a situation that had gone out of their hands. Their spinners could produce some magical deliveries to get the best of even Virat Kohli, but the lack of control and consistency in the line proved detrimental for them in the first innings. Moeen Ali came into this Test after spending the entire length of the tour of Sri Lanka in quarantine. Ironically, he was brought in as the replacement for Dominic Bess who picked up wickets but was ineffective in giving skipper Root some sort of control to check India running away with the game. Jack Leach was more accurate of the two spinners, but desperate Root over bowled him on the spinning surface and he too started to dish out loose balls to Rohit and Rahane to capitalise. Although they clogged India back after the twin strikes of Rohit and Rahane on the first day, the score of 329 was good enough to send a stern warning on this pitch. England were under pressure with the amount of turn and bounce on offer to Indian spinners, and their fears were not unreasonable. Their openers were gone even before Ashwin settled in his spell and especially Dominic Sibley came with the premeditated thought of sweeping the ball having seen his skipper do it successfully on similar pitches in Sri Lanka. However, this pitch and the pace of Indian spinners were a bit different from the challenges they had faced in the recent past. Joe Root has been playing like Don Bradman in Test matches this year, but the law of averages finally caught the English skipper when his team badly needed him to perform. It has been a season of Indian debutants to shine and Axar Patel was the latest member to ride on the bandwagon. He was set to play in the last game but missed out due to injury, but he could not have asked for a more conducive pitch to aid his type of bowling. The pitch needed the spinners to bowl on or around the lien of stumps and he as the perfect man to do so, and hence he was missed by India in the last game. He got the big wicket of Root in the first innings, while followed it up with a stupendous five-wicket haul to make the most of the pitch. England did not do much wrong in this game but were still outplayed by India who looked on a mission to avenge the loss in the first Test. They gambled on putting out a surface that assisted spinners from the first day and it could have gone either way if they had faced another collapse, but the skills and temperament in their batting order stood firm and England’s limitations were exposed. Coming into the fourth day, the writing was on the wall for Root’s men, and any chance of magical comeback started to unravel when Ashwin foxed Dan Lawrence even before delivering his wicket-taking ball. The off-spinner was all over England’s makeshift number three and the effects of playing on his mind were telling in the second innings. Lawrence was guilty of premeditating playing Ashwin coming down the wicket and the off-spinner was too wily to beat him on the line. There were no chances of England saving the game, but it was more of earning some confidence before the pink ball Test for which they put all at stake by resting James Anderson, but all of that hopes were shattered as well when Stokes was once again done in by Ashwin, while Axar was too accurate for the resilience of Root. The smile that the England skipper offered after delivery from Axar took his glove after spitting off the surface like a cobra was the fitting end of England’s defiance and their helplessness. India were lucky enough that Kohli finally broke the chain of losing the toss but he was bullish in his assertion after the game that the nature of the pitch made the toss irrelevant as he had the resources at his disposal to run through the England batting line up even on the first day. Kohli was back to his fiery best while on the filed, but he too will do well to realise at times his behaviours did not look fitting to the stature he holds in world cricket. Ravichandran Ashwin was adjudged man of the match for his splendid innings with the bat and eight wickets across the two innings. He missed out narrowly on joining Sir Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Shakib Al Hasan in the special list of players who have had a ton and 10 wicket haul in a Test match, but his delight after completing the century and addressing the crowd in his native Tamil must have been enough to stamp his credentials as the biggest match winner for India on home soil. Now, the sides have higher stakes in next game and both Kohli and Root reiterated the importance of the pink ball Test scheduled to start on February 24 in Motera, Ahmedabad. Both India and England will bring one more seamer in their line up and while Root will welcome Anderson back, India too will welcome Jasprit Bumrah.

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2nd Test Day 3 Report: Masterful R Ashwin owns Chepauk to put England on brink

The momen England were bolwed out at 134 in their first innings, it was always going to be a tough ask for them to save the second Test of the series on a picth that has been deemed too much in favour of bowlers, precisely spinners. England were behind in the game by more than 250 runs at the start of the hird day and their hopes were reliant on a collapse by the Indian batting order. The pitch was playing tricks and England were able to have a dream start, prizing out Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant fairly quickly. Although England were behind in the game, failure of Indian batsmen and a collapse would have fuelled the deabte around the quality of the pitch which was rated as a ‘beach’ by former England captain Michael Vughan. When India started to collapse in the first session, there was expectations that the match will be finished inside three days, but Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin took upon themselves to show that the pitch was not unplayable, and that with better application and decisive footwork, runs were there for the taking. The duo started defending going to the pitch of the ball and attempted to score off the backfoot when English spinners started to lose their discipline once again. Kohli looked in total command, and the put on half century that many rated as good as some of his best innings in Test cricket. They put on a 96 run partnership before Kohli was beaten for the first time on backfoot by Moeen Ali and another impressive innings from the Indian skipper was cut short before he could hit a mcuh-awaited hundred. On the other hand, Ashwin was continuing on his merry way and defied all England bowlers in a picth and nararrative defying innings that lasted 148 deliveries. He had alerted a warning to the English camp a aday before and there he was making all that warning come true at the expense of Root and his teammates. Kohli batted well for his 62 and while the English spin twins Moeen Ali and Jack Leach finsihed with four wickets each, but the day belonged to Ashwin who put on another masterclass on the second consecutive day in this Test. On the second day, it was his bowling that had thrown England out of the game, while his batting floored a dn deflated the England team on the third day. After teaching his English ocunterparts how to bowl on this pitch in the first innings on the second day, the batsmen inside Ashwin rose to the occassion on the next day to teach them another lesson, and this time, a rancourous one with the bat in his hand. Root threw everything he had at his dispoal from Olly Stone’s pace to Stuart Broad’s leg cutters, but Ashwin, the batsman was ina a idfrerent zone and the feeling that he carried his own pitch to the middle must have gone through the fruatarted minds of Englihsmen. Ashwin was batting with immense confidence on his defence, something that must have irked the English batsmen who could not muster him while bolw in his hand, but was proactive to chnage his appraoch after Ishant Sharma got out. Ashwin was in pursuit of a rare hundred that would have made the stage his own and the crowd at Chepauk were right behind the local hero who was at the top of his game. When Broad bolwed full in pursuit of taking out his stumps, he was delat with punch over his head, while Stone’s short deliveris were flat batted to all parts of the ground. Leach’s full balls were lofted over the top, while the long hops were pulled. He was merciless against anything loose, and Root must have gone through a phase where he would have loved to see his batsmen watching theoff spinner giving them a harsh lesson on how to bat. The last man with the bat, Siraj’s delight when Ashwin completed his century emphasized the place Ashwin holds in the dressing room and the sledge by Australian captain that the team does not love him must have been crushed to death at Chepauk. England finally managed to see his back after his century but the real challenge was remaining for the tourist on the third day. They were tasked with the target of 482 runs to go 2-0up in the series, but it looked like more a punishment and thundering from the Indian team which was clearly not happy at them getting outplayed at their own peril in the last game. The balls was turning from the stump line and after Kohli handed the task of rattling the batsmen towards the end of the day’s play to Axar as Ashwin was away after spending so much time on the field. Kohli also handed Ishant the opportunity to do wahtever he could do best with the new ball before Ashwin returned with a huge roar from the crowd at Chepauk. Axar was the man for India and his brisk pace and line of attack at the stumps made him a lethal weapon on this pitch. He has been brought in to do the task Ravindra Jadeja used to do when was fit and the left armer’s reliance on natural variation off the pitch paid dividends for the hosts as Dominic Sibley was caught hoping to hit the ball right infront of the wicket. Opener Rory Burns has not had the best of times with the bat and was on pair in the second innings. He was gifted a reprive when Rishabh Pant could not hang onto an edge from his bat off Ashwin, but he was proved too meak and incapable by Ashwin who kept coming at him. The drift that defeated Stokes in the first innings proved to be too good for him, but he was gukity of doing a cardinal sin when he tried to close the face of the bat to a ball turning sharply and the edge was caught by an ecstatic Virat Kohli in the gulley region. The day’s play could not have been any less action-packed as an acurate Axar Patel caught a nervous Joe Root right back in the crease. Umpire Nitin Menoo did not pay heed to vociferous appeal from the Indians, and the the hosts opted for the DRS. Turned out, Menon had adjudged it not out pressuming the appeal was for a cuaght behind, but the third umpire Anil Chaudhary clearly found on replays that Root had missed the ball and that it had hit him on the pad. On the ball tracker, the point of imapct was ruled ‘umpire’s call’ and hence the decisions which was given on the grounds of caught behind stayed on the grounds of an LBW appeal as well and the whole Indian players including Kohli and the support staff in the dressing room clearly looked upset with the call. The much-sought wicket of Root would have thrown match firmly into India’s on the third day itself but Kohli would back his troops to come up trumps against England on the fourth day. Even a draw seems highly unlikely, but Kohli and India would be all eager to see the back of Ben Stokes and Joe Root as quickly as possible on the fourth day.