England getting bamboozled on turning tracks is no longer a “foregone conclusion” and the shock loss in the opening Test has given India a lot to think about ahead of the second game, says visiting team’s pace ace Mark Wood. England rode on vice-captain Ollie Pope’s epic 196 and debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley’s seven-wicket haul in the fourth innings to fashion a memorable 28-run win in the opening Test in Hyderabad on Sunday. “I don’t know what (pitch) they will produce (for the second Test). India have got the potential to produce any wicket here. I’ve played in World Cup games and IPL games where it’s seamed, flat pitches, spinning wickets. They have the potential to do any wicket they want.
“But now, we’ve given them something to think about. It’s not a foregone conclusion that we are going to turn up here and they’re going to spin us out,” Wood was quoted as saying by ‘ESPNCricinfo’.
Pope dominated the formidable Indian spin department of Ravinchandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jaedja and Axar Patel in England’s second essay.
“Ollie Pope has played a fantastic knock, they’re now going to have to go analyse, like we would do if things didn’t go well, and analyse how they are going to try and combat that,” Wood said.
“We’ve won one game, it’s a hell of an achievement, but I don’t think we need to get too far ahead of ourselves.
“Don’t build this up now and say, ‘ah we’re going to win’. It’s the same again. Go into the next game with the same belief, same process and hopefully get the same result,” Wood added.
The 34-year-old was the lone pacer in England’s playing eleven and said it felt weird when skipper Ben Stokes informed him that he’d be bowling micro-spells.
“When we were at the ground, he (Stokes) said probably one or two. I mean, I thought I may not even open the bowling in second innings. But it was like ‘one over; that’s it’.
“So that was a bit weird. Especially when the captain says you’re going to bowl one over with the new ball and it was a bit like, right, I’ll practice one over with the new ball,” he said.
“Very rarely would you think you’d bowl one over and then be off. But weirdly I trust what he says. One over? Right, okay, I’ll give it everything for this over. And then he said ‘rest’ and I’m not annoyed. Like, I get it, we’re going to spin now. So it’s just a bit different.” Wood ultimately bowled 25 overs while remaining wicketless. In contrast, his Indian counterpart Jasprit Bumrah took six wickets, including 4 for 41 in the second innings.
“Bumrah didn’t do me any favours by bowling like a genius,” Wood said.
“That was tough! It was a bit odd, a bit weird at times. Usually at points during the game I’d think ‘I might bowl here’ but the spin is doing the damage.
“I said to Jimmy (Anderson) that I found it more bizarre that I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I was sort of working it out as I went along. Usually if Jimmy is bowling a spell he can say to me ‘this worked well’, or ‘what about this?’ You are talking to the captain and not really knowing how it’s going to go,” he added.
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