In the ongoing India-England test match at Lord’s, England won the toss and decided to bowl first on the second day (the First day was washed out due to heavy rain).
Weather God’s Grace
Fortunately, the weather was wet and condition was perfectly suitable for swing bowling on the day one. It was almost a swing bowler’s paradise. Sighting that, all England bowler looked like good swing bowlers. Each of them had their share of the wickets. They bundled India out for paultry 107. It looked as if Indian batting did not have a clue about playing a swing bowling. Each batsman looked mediocre, including Virat Kohli, who is currently the world’s best batsman. Fortunately for England, the weather did not allow any further play on the day, and they did not have to bat in those conditions.
Weather changes Game changes
Come the day three, conditions were as clear as a view from an Eagle eye. England (any team for that matter) could not have been happier than those conditions for batting. As expected, England batted on a pitch which was just 35 overs old and did not have much grass on it to allow the swing. As expected, they salvage the day with 350+ runs in a day and pulled the game away. India also made a mistake of picking Kuldeep Yadav, as a second spinner on the swing-friendly conditions. However, the decision came based on the previous day’s weather conditions.
Come day 4 (on the day this blog is being written), conditions are no different than day 3. Taking the advantage, England took the game further away from India, to put it beyond India’s gasp.
Taking a measure of all these aspects, it could be made out that how much a test match result depends on the weather in a country like England. This is especially bad because the opposite teams get to bat in two different conditions.
Yes, it is quite acceptable that a team’s real character is tested in tough batting conditions, but if it has to be tested, it has to be for both. That’s when both teams are tested on all aspects of the game, for a true result to come out.
Unfortunately, this is a bad advertisement for this particular form of the game, which is already struggling to find the fans across the world.
