ICC changes pitch rating for the third India-Australia Test at Indore from "poor" to "below average"

[MenInG]

ICC changes pitch rating for the third India-Australia Test at Indore from "poor" to "below average"

The third Test in the Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia played at the Holkar Stadium in Indore finished in two days and a session.

The ICC has deemed the pitch used for the third Test between India and Australia, which was played under the ICC World Test Championship umbrella, at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore as “poor” under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.

Spinners from both teams enjoyed great help from the surface that was conducive to spin right from the start on day one, which saw 14 wickets fall. Out of the 31 wickets that fell during the whole match, 26 were scalped by the spinners while only four wickets went to pacers. One was run-out.

The Holkar Stadium has received three demerit points as a result after ICC Match Referee Chris Broad submitted his report after consultation with both Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith, the captains of both teams in the third Test.

BCCI now have 14 days if they wish to appeal against the sanction.

Speaking on the pitch, Chris Broad said: “The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start.

"The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match.”

Australia into World Test Championship Final as India made to wait
According to the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, a venue will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for a period of 12 months if it accumulates five or more demerit points over a five-year rolling period.

The action in the Border-Gavaskar series now moves to Ahmedabad with India leading 2-1. Australia punched their ticket to the World Test Championship final with the win in Indore and India have a chance to do the same if they win the final Test.

In case they fail to do so, they will need a favour from reigning WTC Champions New Zealand, who need to avoid a whitewash at the hands of Sri Lanka. As thing stands, Sri Lanka can pip India in the second spot only if they whitewash the Black Caps 2-0 away from home in the two-match series that commences on 9 March. Any other result will mean that Australia will face India in the WTC Final in Oval on 7 June.

ICC

 

[MenInG]

Rohit Sharma admitted India's demand for sharp-turning pitches backfired with an Indore surface Australia suggested was on the "extreme" end of the spectrum set to face judgment from the International Cricket Council.

While victorious captain Steve Smith insisted he had enjoyed playing on a Holkar Stadium strip that had large chunks of turf exploding from it from the first over the match, he wondered aloud whether it had been too erratic too early.

Rohit, despite his side losing a Test at home for just the third time in their last 46 matches, stood by what he says is an edict to prepare pitches designed to favour India’s spinners and maximise the skill of their lower-order batters.

"Before a series starts, you have to decide on what pitches you need to play," the opener told reporters after Australia's nine-wicket win. "It was our call to play on such pitches. We knew that we could face challenges as well, but we were ready for these challenges.

"The consistent runs from the batters will not come on such challenging pitches. We are here to win whether it is two days or five days, it doesn't matter. We don't want to prepare a pitch where the results are not coming. We want to play to win.

"And we do understand it can come back to haunt us, I am aware of that.

"We want be brave enough, not just with talking. We want to be brave enough on what we do on the field and that's playing on challenging pitches."

In 90 years of India hosting Test cricket, only the 2021 Ahmedabad Test against England saw fewer runs scored in a match that achieved a result than this week's Indore Test.

The first two Tests of this series in Nagpur and Delhi were also played on challenging surfaces, with the ICC rating both pitches as "average".

This time Chris Broad, who replaced Andy Pycroft as match referee for the third Test, will have the final say on the Indore track and will consider whether it ventured into "below average" or "poor" territory.

Either verdict would see demerit points handed down to the venue, which had been forced to prepare the pitch on short notice after Dharamsala (where the third Test was originally scheduled for) was deemed unsuitable.

A "below average" mark would be the fourth time in a year that Australia have played a Test on a pitch given that rating, with the ICC also deeming surfaces produced in Rawalpindi (against Pakistan in March last year), Galle (against Sri Lanka in July) and Brisbane (against South Africa in December) as not up to scratch.

The last Test pitch given that rating in India came last year for the Bangalore match against Sri Lanka.

"All the wickets have spun, we haven't gotten past three days yet so that shows that it's been spinning from day one in all the Test matches, but I personally I really enjoyed playing on these kind of wickets," said Smith.

"I prefer this than just a genuine flat wicket that goes five days and can be boring in stages.

"With this one, whether it might have been a little bit too extreme, potentially from the first ball, I'm not really entirely sure."

Rohit also bristled at a query on whether India would make good on his pre-Indore Test suggestion that a green seaming pitch favouring fast bowlers could be prepared for the final match in Ahmedabad to help his side prepare for the World Test Championship final.

Australia’s win in Indore saw them become the first team to guarantee qualification.

Rohit had said earlier this week that the preparation of a pace-friendly surface next week hinged on the home side winning the third Test to put the series result beyond doubt.

While the Border Gavaskar Trophy has been retained by India, Australia could still draw the series 2-2 with another win in the final match.

"This pitch talk is getting too much. Every time we play in India, we always focus on the pitch," said Rohit in response to a question about the Ahmedabad plan he had labelled a “definite possibility” on Tuesday.

"Why are we not talking about Nathan Lyon? How well he bowled? How well (Cheteshwar) Pujara batted in the second innings, how well Usman Khawaja played?

"Those are the things if you ask me I can give the details of, not the pitch. We focus too much on the pitch here in India and I feel that is necessary."

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/ind...er-back-fire-rohit-sharma-two-days/2023-03-03

 

[Zerotohero]

This is expected. Looks like we have dug ourselves a deep hole in trying to drive home advantage.

 

[Ab Fan]

Pune was also poor which India lost..

 

[Champ_Pal]

Indian pitches have been poor for a while now. Absolutely pathetic. Its more about luck than actual skill.

 

[RexRex]

Pitch has backfired for India big time, they deserve this slap from Australia !

 

[Saj]

The plan went horribly wrong for India didn't it.

Terrible pitch which deserves the punishment from the ICC.

 

[RamLakhan]

They should ban all these random cities from hosting test matches, they should stick onto LOIs, hell give them IPL matches, let them make money through that - there will be plenty actually! And stop the non-sense concept of 1 home match & 1 away match for each IPL team, have 1 proper round robin league matches for every team, and then make a super-6 or something if they really want to extend the number of matches (for me just 1 round robin + SF + F is enough)

Let them fix 6 to 8 venues to host test matches and standardize the pitches with professional curators!

 

[Suleiman]

No surprises. Playing in India recently is a lottery.

 

[MenInG]

BCCI have 14 days to appeal - Pakistan got their's revoked so possible here also.

 

[sweep_shot]

Glad ICC didn't chicken out.

"Poor" rating is justified.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Pitch was not that bad. But India batted poorly and bowled poorly as well.

This was not a 109 all out pitch. Indians played rash shots.

Look at Pujara in the second innings. It took a blinder of a catch to get him after he had scored 58.

The spinners bowled poorly. Bowled too full. Watch the length Lyon bowled.

If anyone wants an example of a rank turner watch India vs Australia Mumbai 2004-05.

The Indore pitch was similar to what one would get in India in 90s and early 2000s. Even then this one didn't have much bounce.

Pakistani fans would remember the Kotla pitch of 1999 with bowl hitting the gloves and flying to slips off the bowling of Kumble.

Harbhajan Singh will have half his wickets caught bat pad because of turn and bounce of the pitch.

The batters no more have that technique.

The reason:

None of the Indian test batters play even one game of Ranji. The previous generation would play domestic matches. This gave them the chance to play on turning tracks against good spinners.


The last generation of Indian batters played opposition spinners like Murali Warne Saqi Herath Adams Swann. Currently i don't see a high quality non Indian test spinner apart from Lyon.

 

[cricketjoshila]

The plan went horribly wrong for India didn't it.

Terrible pitch which deserves the punishment from the ICC.

More like lack of skills. This present generation of Indian batsmen apart from Pujara don't seem to have the defensive technique against spinners.

And the ones who tried to attack got beaten by flight and dip.

May be they should watch a few videos of Vvs Sehwag Tendulkar Dravid Gambhir Ganguly etc and learn how to handle spin.

 

[MenInG]

The pitches used in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia have dominated headlines continuously with all three Test matches till now finishing within three days. The criticism got worse as the pitch in Indore was deemed “poor” by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and it even received three demerit points. Former India selector Saba Karim expressed his concern at the growing trend of spin-friendly pitches in the series and even wondered what the point of this strategy can be with respect to the spirit of the game. During a recent interaction, he lamented the lack of support for batsmen in the Indore pitch and said that an even contest will be appreciated by both fans and players.

"Australia have Steve Smith and India have Virat Kohli, arguably the top two batters in world cricket. But we haven't gotten to see their batting in this series. What are we trying to prove by making such wickets?" he told India News at the end of Day 2 play in the Indore Test.

"In our desperation to qualify for the WTC final, we have lost the spirit of Test cricket. We have No.1 and No.2 teams competing here. It would have been a joy to watch them play if the contest was between all aspects of Test cricket," the former India selector explained when asked about the controversy.

There was no twist in the tale as Australia turned the tables on India with an emphatic nine-wicket win in the third Test on a track that offered wicked turn and variable bounce, confirming their place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

Travis Head (49 not out) and Marnus Labuschagne (28 not out) survived some anxious moments before getting Australia home in 18.5 overs as the match got over in little over two days.

Wins in India come rare for the visiting teams and it was no different for Australia, who recorded their first victory on Indian soil in six years.

For India, it was only their third defeat in the last 10 years and they will need to rework their plans ahead of the final Test, beginning in Ahmedabad from March 9. The pitches in the series have also come under scathing criticism and it remains to be seen if India's preference for spin-friendly tracks changes going ahead with the home team batters struggling badly to negotiate challenging conditions.

India managed only 109 and 163 in their two innings.

Considering the way Australia had collapsed in second innings of Nagpur and Delhi, "anything" was on the cards on Friday morning. Chasing a meagre 76, Australia were favourites but R Ashwin raised hopes of a miracle by getting Usman Khawaja caught behind in the second ball of the day.

The ball turned sharply and took a faint tickle on way to the wicketkeeper. The wicket added to the nervousness in the Australian dressing room.

Labuschagne eased some those nerves by square cutting Ravindra Jadeja for the first boundary of the day.

Both Labuschagne and Head, who is known his attacking approach, were looking to defend in the first 10 overs with Australia reaching 13 for one.

However, momentum changed decisively in favour of Australia after the ball change following the 10th over.

Ashwin was not happy even after the change of ball and that reflected in his bowling. Head smashed the star Indian spinner for a four and six over mid-on in the 11th over as the premier spinner was guilty of bowling too full.

Head took the attack to Jadeja in the following over, hitting one straight over the bowler's head, and that also gave confidence to Labuschagne who went for the sweep in the same over to take the score 35 for one in 12 overs.

After that, there was no looking back for the Australian duo who had gained enough confidence to go for their shots.

Labuschagne hit the winning runs, a four over mid-wicket, to complete a memorable victory.

NDTV

 

[gazza619]

Should we send our Pakistani groundsmen to help India? We make pitches that can last a 10 day test match without breaking

 

[cricketjoshila]

Should we send our Pakistani groundsmen to help India? We make pitches that can last a 10 day test match without breaking

These batsmen lack skills to play on tough wickets.

 

[moghul]

The plan went horribly wrong for India didn't it.

Terrible pitch which deserves the punishment from the ICC.

Credit goes to Smith , who used the Indian plan for his team's own advantage .

 

[sweep_shot]

These batsmen lack skills to play on tough wickets.

Even though I think this pitch was poor and was rightfully penalized, I also think most modern day batters can't handle tough pitches.

I blame IPL and other T20 leagues. I blame the T20 format in general. It has harmed quality of batters.

 

[MenInG]

The verdict is out. Then pitch in Indore's Holkar Stadium which hosted the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia has officially been given a 'poor' rating. And truth be told, it was always coming. With a total of 30 wickets falling on the first two days of the Test, there was no going back. Still though, after India's nine-wicket defeat to Australia, Rohit Sharma defended the pitch to the hilt, claiming that it was a collective call to choose such surfaces. But at the end of the day, the very decision came back to haunt India as their batters succumbed to the top-quality spin of Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann, both of whom registered five-wicket-hauls in each innings of the Test.

The debate over pitches in India is a never-ending one, and adding his two cents on the raging topic is the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. The former captain, who has batted on the toughest of wickets including Australia and West Indies, believes that a big reason why India lost was their underwhelming batting. Once the home were shot down for 109 in the first innings, and later did not show application to get bowled out for 163 in the second, the writing was pretty much on the wall.

"If after winning the toss, you get all out for 109, you clearly don't have the runs to give your bowlers attacking fields. You will always be under pressure. Had they scored 180, it would have been different. So that is one reason, And secondly, in the second innings as well, Indians batted believing that 'Iss pitch pe, humein toh out hi hona hai (We eventually have to get out on this pitch). So why not play a few shots and try to score runs. First Cheteshwar Pujara, and then Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne showed that if you play with a straight bat, you may get beaten, but playing with patience can give you runs," Gavaskar told Sports Tak.

To add to ICC's rating, Gavaskar passed his own verdict on the Indore pitch, calling it the worst among the three venues on which the BGT has been played so far. The surfaces in Nagpur and Delhi were no cakewalk for batter, but at least those got tougher to bat on with time. Contrastingly in Indore, there was vicious turn on offer from the first half and hour of Day 1. India lost 7 wickets for 84 runs in the opening session of the Test, while Australia lost 6 for 11 runs before lunch on Day 2. Still, if there was one team that showed a semblance of authority on this pitch, it was Australia, who disdainfully chased down 76 to pull one back at India. This proves, as Gavaskar too underlines, that irrespective of how bad a pitch is, batting patiently along with the right approach can help one survive.

"That is their tactic. They thought that if they want to win matches and reach the final of the World Test Championship, they would like batting on such pitches. India won the first two matches before lost this one, but I feel that among all three Tests, this pitch [In Indore] was the worst. Nagpur and Delhi pitches had some turn but not as much as what we saw in the first half hour of the match. There was dust popping as well when the ball landed. This was a bad pitch, and any batter on this surface would have struggled," he added.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cric...-after-icc-s-poor-rating-101677852606886.html

 

[MenInG]

Gavaskar not agreeing with the penalty

==

The third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Indore between India and Australia ended in a little over two days on Friday, with the visitors winning by nine wickets. After the match, the International Cricket Council (ICC) deemed the Holkar Stadium pitch used for the third Test, which was played under the ICC World Test Championship umbrella, as "poor" under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.

"Spinners from both teams enjoyed great help from the surface that was conducive to spin right from the start on day one, which saw 14 wickets fall. Out of the 31 wickets that fell during the whole match, 26 were scalped by the spinners while only four wickets went to pacers. One was run-out," the ICC said in a statement.

"The Holkar Stadium has received three demerit points as a result after ICC Match Referee Chris Broad submitted his report after consultation with both Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith, the captains of both teams in the third Test."

While admitting that the Indore pitch was tough to bat on, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar questioned the was the demerit points were given.

"It was a tough pitch to bat. You can see from the scores that it was not an easy pitch to bat on. I think three demerit points is little too harsh for the simple reason, if it was such a tough pitch to bat on, you would not have seen a 90-plus stand between Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne. You would not have on Day 3 a 77-run stand if the pitch was such an impossible," Gavaskar told India Today.

"Tough pitch definitely but that's what you expect i India. Also, I don't have exact information but when the Test match was played in November-December at the Gabba between Australia and South Africa, which also finished in two days, and the ball was flying around. The fast bowlers looked very dangerous. They could have caused serious injury. There was a threat to life and limb on that pitch. I don't know how many demerit points it got and who the match referee was. But I think there needs to some sort of parity on how the demerit points are given."

NDTV

 

[Front Foot Pull]

this was a garbage pitch and aptly rated as poor. such inconsistent bounce on day 1 screams to be rated poor. extreme spin + inconsistent bounce + surface chipping out from ball 1 is terrible. no, bcci shouldn't appeal for the rating to be revoked, this pitch should be punished.

however, people using an odd rubbish pitch here & there to give out overall verdict like playing in india is lottery in recent years and pitches have been poor for a while is wrong. shows these people don't watch much indian test cricket except an odd one here & there when the pitch makes news.

 

[Buffet]

Well deserved rating.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

While ICC gives "poor" rating for Indore pitch following third India-Australia Test

 

[Bewal Express]

These pitches have become a parody and making some of the top players look like complete chumps. Where is the entertainment in this dross?

 

[Bewal Express]

Gavaskar not agreeing with the penalty

==

The third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Indore between India and Australia ended in a little over two days on Friday, with the visitors winning by nine wickets. After the match, the International Cricket Council (ICC) deemed the Holkar Stadium pitch used for the third Test, which was played under the ICC World Test Championship umbrella, as "poor" under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.

"Spinners from both teams enjoyed great help from the surface that was conducive to spin right from the start on day one, which saw 14 wickets fall. Out of the 31 wickets that fell during the whole match, 26 were scalped by the spinners while only four wickets went to pacers. One was run-out," the ICC said in a statement.

"The Holkar Stadium has received three demerit points as a result after ICC Match Referee Chris Broad submitted his report after consultation with both Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith, the captains of both teams in the third Test."

While admitting that the Indore pitch was tough to bat on, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar questioned the was the demerit points were given.

"It was a tough pitch to bat. You can see from the scores that it was not an easy pitch to bat on. I think three demerit points is little too harsh for the simple reason, if it was such a tough pitch to bat on, you would not have seen a 90-plus stand between Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne. You would not have on Day 3 a 77-run stand if the pitch was such an impossible," Gavaskar told India Today.

"Tough pitch definitely but that's what you expect i India. Also, I don't have exact information but when the Test match was played in November-December at the Gabba between Australia and South Africa, which also finished in two days, and the ball was flying around. The fast bowlers looked very dangerous. They could have caused serious injury. There was a threat to life and limb on that pitch. I don't know how many demerit points it got and who the match referee was. But I think there needs to some sort of parity on how the demerit points are given."

NDTV

Sunni wants to keep his job. Its the problem with using your own commentators on your own matches. The BCCI is a like a Stalinst state, any deviation and you are sent to the gulag for commies

 

[MenInG]

Australia head coach Andrew McDonald speaking to reporters:

ICC Match Referee Chris Broad submitted his assessment of Indore track after the match ended on Friday morning which read: “The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start."

"I mean, our job is to play on the pitch. So whatever they they roll up, our job is to problem solve what's in front of us. So that's for others to work through,"

"I mean the ICC are…yeah, they give every pitch a rating and they gave this one a poor. So you know we don't talk when they give it a good rating. So it's up to them how they want to navigate through that. So the conditions were extreme. I think they've been extreme for all three test matches."

HindustanTimes

 

[Romali_rotti]

I didn't think pitch was that bad, it required patience and application to succeed, there are too many bazball or T20 sloggers there with no technique for test cricket...

 

[nextover666666]

A horrible pitch indeed

 

[MenInG]

Moments after Australia's big comeback win of nine wickets in the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India, ICC gave their verdict on the Indore track. The pitch of the Holkar Stadium was immensely criticised after 30 wickets fell on the first two days with spinners picking 25 of those. ICC rated it "poor" and slapped the venue with three demerit points. According to a report, BCCI, unhappy with the rating, is likely to challenge it.

The Indore tie was the third successive Test match in India that finished well within three days. The third Test lasted only seven sessions. However the criticisms had begun right from Day 1 where metrics showed a whopping 4.8 degrees of turn.

After the match ended on Saturday, ICC Match Referee Chris Broad handed over his assessment of the 3rd Test pitch which read: “The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start. The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match.”

According to a report in Indian Express, BCCI is likely to challenge the verdict. “We will take stock of the situation and decide,” a BCCI official told the newspaper.

Last year, the Pakistan Cricket Board had challenged ICC's decision to hand demerit points to Rawalpindi pitch after the first match of the series between Pakistan and England. The pitch was given a “below average” rating after the match in December. After reviewing the footage, the demerit point was rescinded.

According to ICC rules, BCCI has 14 days to appeal against the sanction. A venue can get suspended from staging international matches for a period of a 12 months if it amasses five or more demerit points over a five-year rolling period.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cric...pitch-india-vs-australia-101678160846094.html

 

[MenInG]

There have been some outstanding performances from the players of India and Australia in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India's Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Ravichandran Ashwin have been superb while Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann and Usman Khawaja have led the way for Australia. Despite all this, the pitch seems to be the most talked-about element before every Test of the series. After the third Test match in Indore ended in two days and a session in Australia's favour and the pitch used got a "poor" rating from the ICC, the interest around the pitch for the fourth and final Test of the series in Ahmedabad naturally became huge.

India head coach Rahul Dravid, who has been at the forefront of pitch inspection before the start of every Test of this Border-Gavaskar series, echoed captain Rohit Sharma's views of not putting too much emphasis on turning tracks. Dravid, in fact, defended the Indore track which was heavily criticised by ICC referee Chris Broad.

"I won't go too much into it. The match referee is entitled to make his opinion, share his thoughts on the pitch. It doesn't matter whether I agree with his reading or not. With WTC points at stake, you are looking to play on wickets that produce results. Sometimes it can be difficult to get that balance perfectly right. That has happened not only in India but a lot of other places as well," Dravid said in the pre-match conference on Tuesday in Ahmedabad.

"The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match,” Broad had said in his report for the Indore pitch.

HindustanTimes

 

[MenInG]

The pitch rating for Indore's Holkar Stadium, the venue for the third Test between India and Australia, has been changed after BCCI's appeal.

The pitch for the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar series was initially rated as 'poor' and received three demerit points. However, after an appeal from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the rating has been changed from 'poor' to 'below average'.

The footage from the Test was reviewed by an ICC appeal panel consisting of Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager – Cricket, and Roger Harper, ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Member.

Both were of the opinion that, while the guidelines had been followed by the Match Referee in accordance with Appendix A of the Pitch Monitoring Process, there was not enough excessive variable bounce to warrant the 'poor' rating.

The panel, therefore, concluded that the pitch should be rated 'below average', meaning the Holkar Stadium will receive only one demerit point instead of the original three.

The pitch used in the third Test in Indore offered a lot to the spinners, with a total of 14 wickets falling on the opening day. Out of the 31 wickets in the whole match, 26 were picked up by spinners.

The Test lasted two days and a session, at the end of which Australia emerged victorious to book their berth in the ICC World Test Championship Final.

India had to wait a few more days to book their own place in the Final, which was confirmed when New Zealand edged Sri Lanka in the first Test in Christchurch.

ICC

 

[CrIc_Mystique]

Horrible pathetic pitch....makes a mockery of test cricket. I am surprised it got the rating it did initially, it should have got 'unfit' rating.
it is good that our pitches are coming under the scanner. hopefully, we roll out better sporting wickets going forward.

 

[FearlessRoar]

English wicketkeeper-batter Ben Foakes on Tuesday recalled the pitch during the first Test match against India in Hyderabad and said that it was 'horrific". While speaking ahead of the second Test match in Visakhapatnam, Foakes said that the visitors are more positive and looking forward to putting the Indian bowlers under pressure. "Going into that, I was thinking, 'These are horrific wickets - I just need to find a way to stay in' I think now the group is more, if that's the situation, you've got to be positive; got to put it [pressure] back on the bowler and put them under pressure," Foakes was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.

He added that the English batters still have the fear of getting out which kept in their shells.

"Before, there was more of a fear of getting out and that put us in our shells. Whereas now it's not worrying that you are getting out and accepting that you probably are on those sort of surfaces. But how can you actually go and dominate at times as well?" he added.

Both England and India have arrived in Visakhapatnam ahead of the second Test which will begin on Friday.

Recapping the first Test match, India will be keen for redemption after going 1-0 down in the series. The hosts were in complete control of the Test and dominated the visitors. But on Day 3, Ollie Pope stepped onto the crease and changed the entire complexion of the game with his reverse sweeps.

He not only brushed off India's 190-run lead but went on to hand England a target that could be defended on a tricky surface with his knock of 196.

Debutant Tom Hartley introduced himself and spun India's batters out with his spell of 7/62. He ended the Test with 9/193 which is the best figure for an England spinner on Test debut since 1945.

His nine wickets tally in the first Test in a match is the joint-most since former English spinner Robert Berry's 9/116 against West Indies in Manchester in 1950.

Hartley also became just the fourth England spinner to claim a five-wicket haul on Test debut in this century.

NDTV

 

[James]

English wicketkeeper-batter Ben Foakes on Tuesday recalled the pitch during the first Test match against India in Hyderabad and said that it was 'horrific". While speaking ahead of the second Test match in Visakhapatnam, Foakes said that the visitors are more positive and looking forward to putting the Indian bowlers under pressure. "Going into that, I was thinking, 'These are horrific wickets - I just need to find a way to stay in'

This isn’t quite accurate from NDTV. Foakes didn’t describe this first Test pitch as horrific. As has been reported elsewhere, Foakes went into the match thinking about the pitches on the last tour and remembering them being horrific.