Image Credit- AP
“It looked interesting, didn’t it? I don’t know. I can’t say much.”
It was perhaps the most diplomatic answer Ben Stokes has given in India so far.
England made a deliberate effort not to whine about pitches before this tour.
India has the right to curate a surface on their own terms, just like any other
team at home. Screaming against them won’t accomplish anything except make you
look like bitter losers and, worse, incite fear among your own group members.
The internal messaging was clear: take care of business. Keeping this in mind,
the preparations were carried out on sand-filled, raked areas in Abu Dhabi.
Other for the DRS complaints, of course, they have
mainly adhered to that. Throughout, the pitches in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam,
and Rajkot have been outstanding; they have changed to offer variation and, in
the end, gratifying quality. And India has shown to be the superior team so
far, as evidenced by the 2-1 scoreline.
Things are about to get interesting at Ranchi. At the JSCA International
Stadium, the visitors were met by what they thought was an unusual 22-yard
strip. It was already cracked two days before the Friday start, with plates
that certain players anticipate shifting under duress.
“I don’t know, I’ve never seen something like
that before so I have got no idea,” Stokes said, when asked on how it
might play. “I don’t know what could happen.
“If you looked down one side of opposite ends it just looked different to
what I am used to seeing, especially out in India. It looked green and grassy
up in the changing-rooms, but then you go out there, it looked different. Very
dark and crumbly and quite a few cracks in it.”
As a result, Stokes is debating whether to go back to
the attack that relied heavily on spin in the first two Tests. However, he will
hold off on making the decision until Thursday in order to give off-spinner
Shoaib Bashir one last look before replacing James Anderson. An alternative
would be to reinforce the batting by replacing Anderson with Dan Lawrence,
especially if England expect the match to be short because to the necessity for
quick runs in changing circumstances.
Ollie Robinson will take Mark Wood’s position at this point since he needs a
break after using up a lot of energy in the third Test defeat.
“I think he has worked incredibly hard while he
has been out here,” Stokes said. “And it is tough for someone like
Ollie, who’s played such a big part in the game over the last two years, where
he has not taken part in a game and the stuff he has done away from the game
itself has been very good.
“The skill will always be there. But since that chat [in 2022] he’s worked
on everything I thought that would get the best out of him, but also the team.
Having Ollie Robinson able to bowl three spells and back it up the next day is
going to do any team the world of good.”