England’s wicketkeeper batter Jonny Bairstow revealed that he is not very concerned about facing a spin against India. Ben Stokes-led side will play five Test matches against Men in Blue starting on January 25 in Hyderabad. England is reportedly planning to travel to India just three days before the start date, after finishing their preparations in the United Arab Emirates.
In the red-ball format of the game, the hard spin-friendly conditions in India will push Ben Stokes and Co.’s aggressive style of play to the ultimate test. England had only won one red-ball Test in their previous two tours to India, but they are the only team to have won a Test series there.
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the series, which begins on January 25, Jonny Bairstow believes that India has several quality bowlers and that the conditions will be significantly better in the first Test match than in the previous tour. He also stated that there was no point in getting worked up about the combination and that they would take it one game at a time.
“Obviously the last time Axar and Ashwin played well. You forget that in that first Test match, the guys played really well, Rooty (Joe Root) got a double in the first Test match in Chennai and then conditions changed quite drastically.”
“We know that it’s the quality spinners, especially in India, we know that they are going to come at us. Whether Axar plays, whether he doesn’t play. Whether Jadeja plays or Kuldeep plays, who knows? We’ll have to wait and see. But there’s no point in overthinking things before their squads announced before we see the pitch and the conditions that in front of us,” Jonny Bairstow said.
The Men in Blue will have one great spin bowling lineup for the upcoming series against England. Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav will compete for three spots in the playing 11 and can make a drastic impact for the team in home conditions.
It’s A Way In Which We’re Trying To Entertain The People – Jonny Bairstow
Jonny Bairstow said that England wishes to remain loyal to their Bazball approach to the game and wants to keep entertaining the fans by playing a positive brand of cricket in red-ball cricket against the quality Indian team.
“Look there’s been a lot of talk around Bazball and probably the majority of it’s from you guys. To be honest it’s a positive way of playing cricket. It’s a way in which we’re trying to entertain the people that are watching,” Jonny Bairstow added.
In recent years, England has had great success in test cricket by playing an aggressive brand of cricket in the longer format of the game. Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have pushed their players to express themselves and let their guard down and would be keen to continue their aggressive in red-ball cricket.
