England’s struggles against spin continued in the second T20I of the series against India on Saturday, with six batters falling to spinners. Varun Chakaravarthy (2 wickets) continued to make life difficult for the England batters, while Axar Patel (2 wickets), Washington Sundar (1 wicket) and even Abhishek Sharma (1 wicket) troubled England.
The visitors were all at sea in the opening T20I where they could only score 132; in the second match, the Jos Buttler-led side played with a more aggressive intent, not hesitating to attempt audacious shots against the Indian spinners. While England did reach 165/9 in their 20 overs, they failed to stitch partnerships, with Indian spinners outfoxing them at regular intervals.
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen believes it is not possible for ‘Bazball’ – a name given to England’s aggressive brand of cricket under Brendon McCullum – would work consistently in subcontinental conditions.
During a question-and-answers session on X (formerly Twitter), Pietersen wrote, “Bazball don’t work against high quality spin consistently! There is an art to playing spin in the subcontinent.”
Earlier, after England’s first T20I defeat in Kolkata, batter Harry Brook had conceded he finds it challenging to tackle spin in the shortest format.
“Facing spin in T20 cricket is probably the hardest thing in the game, especially because I always get out trying to absolutely smack it,” he said. “Maybe I’ve got to rein in a little bit, but we’ll see.”
