How to face Indian spinners in India? Sweep, reverse sweep and more reverse sweep to break their rhythm. Travis Head and Alex Carey tried their bit and now, England are following in their footsteps. England scored 48 runs off reverse sweeps on Day 3 of IND vs ENG 1st Test to almost nullify R Ashwin & Axar Patel’s threat. What Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley started with, Ollie Pope perfected, smashing an unbeaten 148 in Hyderabad as England posted 316/6 at the end of Day 3’s play.
Even as all the buzz was about Bazball, what really helped England was their perfection in playing reverse sweeps. England’s 48 runs off reverse sweeps included 10 boundaries. And out of those 48 runs of 33 deliveries, Ollie Pope alone scored 22. It rattled Ashwin and Axar’s line in the IND vs ENG 1st Test.
Ashwin went for 4.40 in 21 overs while Axar Patel conceded at 4.60 in 15 overs. Ollie Pope did not spare Ravindra Jadeja either. Jadeja went for 3.90 to give away 101 runs in 26 overs.
Legends agree
Kevin Pietersen and Anil Kumble agreed that when batters reverse sweep the spinners, they put the bowlers on the back foot in the IND vs ENG 1st Test.
“The majority of the overs are bowled by spinners. So, you have to do it to release the pressure. What I really liked was committing to what they talked about in Abu Dhabi. They said they were going to reverse sweep and they reverse swept. From a bowler’s perspective and being a spinner at one point, when you do bowl your spin and the guy sweeps and reverse sweeps, it messes up with the line and length,” Kevin Pietersen said on JioCinema.
Anil Kumble agreed with Pietersen’s point.
“It does. What was clear was that batters would get beaten. On this surface, when you are playing forward and the ball is turning away from you, you will get beaten. And the next ball, he played (Ollie Pope) was a reverse sweep. You could literally call it from the commentary. What Indian spinners could have done was change the angle,” Anil Kumble added.
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