NEWS
Follow UsIn 2021 when England arrived on Indian shores, they were in a zone of desolation by the harakiri invoked by the spin troika of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel. One would have expected the same treatment in India three years later, but England decided to pick players based on their height and the impact they could induce because of that.
As a matter of fact, their spinners Shoaib Bashir (10), Rehan Ahmed (24), and Tom Hartley (40) had only 74 first-class wickets between them. However, the two spinners, barring Rehan, had brilliant outings so far, with Hartley’s seven-fer bringing England their only victory of the tour, whereas Bashir’s five-wicket haul in Ranchi helped them come close.
But will the trio have many opportunities to build on this base when they go back to county cricket, where the wicket tends to be flat or seamer-friendly? That is the thing that worries Brendon McCullum.
"It will be a slight frustration of ours if they weren't given opportunities at county level," McCullum said in an interaction with UK media. "There's a very real possibility that might be the case, but without wanting to dictate to counties because they have their own agendas as well, when you see performances like we have out of those two bowlers throughout the series, I think you'd be slightly mad if you didn't give them more opportunities in county cricket.
"It would be nice to think they'd get plenty of opportunities so that they can improve at a quicker rate. Whether those opportunities are with counties or with England, I think we've just got to keep trying to get cricket into them. Whatever opportunity we can, we'll try and give it to them because there're two guys there more than good enough for international cricket. They're also tough characters.
"What you can't tell from the outside of a man's body is the size of their heart - and we've seen both of them have big hearts and they're up for international cricket. It doesn't get any harder than it is right now, and they've both stood up and performed, so we've just to keep giving both of them chances."
McCullum suggested that while England batters are mostly equipped to play on flat decks or seamer-friendly conditions, preparing spin-friendly conditions will develop another facet of their batting. He feels that will provide fans more entertainment as well.
"As much as England's about playing on good wickets and having the ball move off the seam, it should also be about playing on spinning wickets too. If we lived in a world where we could have both Bash and Leachy able to operate in spinning conditions at Somerset, and Hartley and Lyon could bowl together at Lancashire, I think that would be a great viewing point for spectators."
Further, England’s decision to pick Ollie Robinson for the Test didn’t prove too easy as the pacer went wicket-less on his return to Test cricket after a gap of seven months. He scored a fifty nonetheless, but with the ball, he was visibly down on pace. McCullum admitted that Robinson was disappointed on his performance, but backed the pacer to do well in the next games.
"I don't think it [his recall] was too soon," McCullum said. "It was seven months since his last Test so, if anything, it's probably too long between. Everything he did leading into the Test match suggested we'd see not just the Ollie Robinson we'd seen previously but a better version of it. For one reason or another, it didn't quite work out for him and obviously, he's not just as disappointed as everyone else, he's the most disappointed out of everyone.
"He actually twinged his back while batting in the first innings which is why in those initial couple of spells he was down on pace. We saw the following day when his back improved a little bit his pace got up to where it normally is.
"On pushing the front line, he's kind of done that his whole career so that's something we'll try and rectify and make sure it doesn't happen as regularly. It's a tough game for him no doubt and he's hurting a lot. We know how skilled he is and we know his high release point and ability to move the ball off the seam and the skills he possesses are good enough for this level. We've just got to make sure we find a way to get the best out of him.
"Our job is to make sure we get around him and make sure we give him as much support and confidence to be able to go again when the next time arises. It's just sport, right? You have great expectations and sometimes you're not quite able to deliver,” the former Kiwi skipper said.
