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Mohali is going to be a challenge

England ought to be gutted by their failure to finish the match, writes Geoff Boycott

— Photo: S. Subramanium

TESTING TIMES: Monty Panesar, playing rugby with Kevin Pietersen during the practice session at Mohali on Thursday, was ineffectual in the first Test, feels Geoff Boycott.

A lot of you may be wondering if I’ve changed my mind about the wisdom of playing this series now that the first Test at Chennai has provided such a great feast of Test match cricket. Well, I haven’t. And I’m sure that had India not won the Test, plenty of people would have shared my misgivings.

It’s all very well to say that more people came to the stadium in Chennai to watch the game than was expected, but the truth is, they really started to come in only when an Indian victory seemed probable.

However, I don’t want to quibble and spoil the effect of what was indeed a great game, and one that England were in control of for almost four days. However, a cricket match is as much about finishing as anything else, and England ought to be gutted by their failure to do so.

Tough call

Frankly, it’s going to be a tough challenge to pick up the pieces and go on, largely because India are so difficult to beat at home. For years, they have been one of the world’s best home sides, and every decade has produced brilliant batsmen such as Sunny Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, who have made India the great batting side that it is.

Indian batsmen have frequently pulled off astounding chases on home pitches, and on pitches that resemble home tracks, such as the one at Trinidad.

Mohali may offer a slightly lively track than the one in Chennai, but is likely to suffer from the same sense of hurried preparation that we saw in Chennai. After all, these centres were last-minute replacements for Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and as we saw in Chennai, the top went off the wicket by the fifth day.

It reminded me a little of the club pitches that we used to play on for Yorkshire when county grounds were not always available. These were slow turners that would get slower as the game progressed, so that batsmen had plenty of time to wait for the ball and adjust their shots. And these are just the kind of pitches that Indian batsmen thrive on.

And that is a problem for England, because they lose the script when their seamers are not involved in the game. Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison are the men they look to, not Monty Panesar. Had Panesar been a world class spinner, the situation would have been different, but he is intent on being metronomically accurate and nothing more. And that is no good in a situation like the one in Chennai, where he had to put in a match-winning performance.

A great spinner, like Bishan Singh Bedi, for instance, would taunt and tease and ultimately think the batsman out. Panesar does nothing of the sort, largely because he doesn’t think. And against expert players of spin like the Indian batsman — who are not fazed even when the ball is turning and bouncing — Panesar is naturally completely ineffectual.

So Mohali is going to be a challenge. But England have to remember that they controlled 90 per cent of the Chennai match. Perhaps they can summon the extra 10 per cent this time.

Gameplan

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