Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra questioned England’s Bazball strategy to bowling and Ben Stokes’ cautious captaincy in the second test of the ongoing five-match series. The Ben Stokes-led side could not maintain their winning streak in red-ball cricket, failing to perform against the Indian team in the second encounter.
England’s bowling performance fell short of that of India’s batters in the second game. Yashasvi Jaiswal hit a double ton in the first innings, and Shubman Gill got a century in the second innings. On the other hand, the Indian bowlers did an excellent job, with England opener Zak Crawley being the only batter to achieve a half-century in both innings.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra questioned whether England used Bazball tactics in bowling as well, citing Ben Stokes’ lack of aggression in his bowling changes and his concerns about field placement and bowler usage in the game.
“Do they (England) follow the Bazball approach in bowling as well? They keep slightly innovative fields at times. That is interesting, I like that because it forces you to think repeatedly. However, beyond that, I don’t see any aggressive captaincy.”
“With his field placements and usage of his bowlers, the captaincy is not at all aggressive. On the first day, he didn’t use Rehan Ahmed for the first 60 overs. He forgot that he had a leg-spinner,” Aakash Chopra said.
England young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed joined the attack in the 60th over of India’s first innings. The leg-spinner took 3/65 in 17 overs, picking up the wickets of Rajat Patidar, Srikar Bharat, and Jasprit Bumrah in the game.
That Is A Failure To Read The Pitch – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra also questioned Ben Stokes and the England team management’s decision to play only one seamer in the match, claiming that the England think tank’s failure to read the pitch has to be addressed going forward for the remainder of the series.
“In fact, a huge tactical blunder was that you didn’t play two fast bowlers. This pitch was screaming that you should play two fast bowlers but you didn’t play them. You said you would go with one only.”
“You even said that you could go with an all-spin attack. That is a failure to read the pitch. A failure should be called what it is because it was a tactical failure that you played only one fast bowler and you felt the absence of another fast bowler,” Aakash Chopra added.
James Anderson playing his first game of the series was at his absolute best throughout the game.
The right-arm pacer concluded with amazing figures of 3/47 in 25 overs on a field that provided little for the bowlers and went on the pick the important wickets of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the 2nd innings.
