Indian wicket-keeper batter KS Bharat revealed that the Indian cricket team is planning to introduce new strategies and tactics in the second test of the five-match series against England. This comes after a tough outing in the first test, despite dominating the game in the first three days.
In the first test, England’s Ollie Pope, Zack Crawley, and Ben Duckett used a variety of sweeps and reverse sweeps to counter Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. As many experts believe, Indian batters may use the same strategies when the need arises.
During the pre-match press conference, KS Bharat stated that the Indian team is ready to bounce back from their defeat in the first Test. He also stated that the Indian side rehearsed reverse weeps before the first Test, but the option to employ the shot is up to individual players.
“Playing in India, we play a lot of cricket on these tracks. It’s not that we don’t know how to sweep, reverse sweep, or pedal, but on that particular day depending on the situation of the team, we as batters take our calls.”
“In our team meetings, we spoke about the things we could have done better and yes, we certainly have few plans. (We are) definitely looking at the way how they went about the first game, playing some reverse. That’s something we have definitely worked on,” KS Bharat said.
Indian batters have been working hard in the nets and have been practising sweep and reverse sweeps, which were one of England’s main weapons in Hyderabad.
However, the Indian team fell behind in the second innings of their first encounter due to a lack of new shots in their batting approach. This allowed the inexperienced England spin-bowling attack to dominate in Hyderabad. The Rohit Sharma-led side is hoping to correct their faults from the previous match and reassert control in home Tests.
If Someone Bowls Well, You Have To Give Credit To Them – KS Bharat
KS Bharat also promised Indian batsmen that they would be ready to face England spinner Tom Hartley, and he did not hesitate to praise Hartley’s performance. The England debutant ran through the Indian batting lineup picking up seven wickets in the 2nd innings.
“We don’t play the bowlers, we play the ball. On any given day, it can be experienced or inexperienced (bowler), there is nothing like inexperienced in cricket. On that particular day, if someone bowls well, you have to give credit to them,” KS Bharat added.
Tom Hartley had a dismal first-innings performance, yielding two sixes in his first over. Still, he rebounded with a match-winning effort in the second innings, taking seven wickets in just 26.2 overs and conceding only 62 runs. Hartley claimed vital wickets, including the crucial wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, and Shubman Gill.