EXCLUSIVE
Follow UsLooking back at the first Test at Trent Bridge, former England captain David Gower reckons, while India had the edge, he applauded Joe Root’s performance, but at the same time, backed Virat Kohli to come good in the remaining matches.
“In both innings, Joe Root looked a class apart among England batsmen. Virat Kohli getting out for a duck, which doesn't help my punditry. He will come back and there is a lot of time for him to make a lot of runs in the next four Tests,” the former England skipper said on Cricket.com’s show English Summer with David Gower.
“We have potentially missed a rather good finish. I agree that India were favourites on the final day. If the weather had been anything like half-decent, from that position with the runs required and the batting line-up, you'd say India are favourites. However, now and then things happen you cannot predict. On behalf of the English weather, my apologies,” he added.
Gower pointed out that it was Root's rhythm that helped him notch up those runs at Trent Bridge.
"When you talk about the greats batting, logically, you don't have any more time than anyone else. That time is available to all. But the people with the rhythm. In other words, all the movements are perfectly coordinated. If you are stuck on the front foot or the back foot and you're slow to move, you run out of time. If you get those triggers right and you are then responding at the right time to what you are seeing from the bowler's hand, you appear to have just that bit more time. It is a gift given to the great batsmen."
"When you watch him play against a very good Indian seam attack - the ones to leave alone, the ones to attack, it's the foot movement, getting into the right positions - all that is down to rhythm."
"For instance, when Joe is not making runs, I think it's largely because he loses a little bit of rhythm and the movement can be delayed for a fraction of a second and that's what makes the difference."
"When you analyse it, it's incredible what these players can do when some is bowling at you at 85-90 MPH. People are used to it, trained for it, their reactions are up to it. The more you think about it, it's always been incredible what batsmen do to make it look easy and that's what great batsmen do - they make it look easy."
Gower also reckons while both teams’ bowling attack was up to the mark, all eyes will be on the batting line-up, which has not lived up to its potential in the recent past.
“England would know they had all sorts of problems, especially with their batting. When we talked about the game beforehand, I was very strong on saying that both the bowling attacks are good and we saw evidence of that. The question marks will always be on the two batting line-ups,” Gower said.
“Now with Joe Root playing well, that sort of props up England's batting. We saw during England's tour of India, that when Root gets runs, England are competitive, when he doesn't, it seems to be a very different ball game. From an English point of view, yes, we'd love to see Joe carry on batting as he did in this first Test match, as would he. The rest of the top six know they need to produce more runs.”
“For India, Kohli missed out, but Rahul comes in and plays very sensibly. Then you look at the scores around him, there'll be batsmen in the Indian line-up knowing that they've got work to do to get themselves into some sort of form,” Gower, a veteran of 117 Tests and 114 ODIs, added.
While India went in with one spinner, England did not pick any frontline spinner in their XI. Gower reckons it was the right call to make, but adds that either Ravindra Jadeja or Ravichandran Ashwin could do the job with the bat lower down the order, which further reiterates India’s depth.
“That pitch (at Trent Bridge) that we watched for the one for the seamers. It wasn't really a spinners' pitch. Both teams were right,” Gower, who led England in 32 Tests opined.
“India picked someone (Jadeja) who bowls well on any sort of pitch. You can say the same about Ashwin. That's the great strength that India have with the spin department. Both of them are capable of producing performances in any condition. But, on seaming conditions like we had at Trent Bridge, it was sensible to go in with an extra spinner. Both of them can make runs. If the right men don't get the right runs, you get extra strength down the order. So, either Ashwin or Jadeja or both can do that,” he added.
After the weather denied both teams of a result, they will hope for better fortunes in the second Test at Lord’s, which begins on August 12. Who will draw the first blood?
