IND vs ENG, 4th Test: Mhambrey stunned with variable bounce as India left tottering after second day

Indian bowling coach Paras Mhambrey stated on Saturday that the Ranchi pitch has behaved opposite to the crew’s expectations after the house facet stuttered to 219 for seven in response to England’s first-innings complete of 353 within the fourth Test between the 2 sides.

“From what we have seen out here, generally, the nature of the pitch is that it gets slower as the game progresses. We expected that. But, to be honest, we didn’t expect it to play that low on the second day itself,” stated Mhambrey after Stumps on Day 2.

“A couple of balls did keep low in the first innings itself. We expected it to get slower. But we were not expecting the variable bounce.”

He additionally stepped away from terming the pitch a rank turner, including that the crew administration by no means requested for such a floor.

“Firstly, the venue is not something that we can control. The way the [Ranchi] pitch plays has always been similar here. It has never been a rank-turner and I would not call this one.

“There was variable bounce. But I don’t think there were too many that spun sharply from the wicket. It was the variable bounce, on the lower side, which has made batting difficult. That is the nature of the soil. There were no specific instructions from us [to the curator] that we wanted to play on a rank turner,” he added.

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Mhambrey additionally credited the English spinners – Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley – for maintaining it easy.

The pair accounted for six of the seven Indian wickets to fall at present. “I think they bowled well. (They) kept a simple line and length. At this level, you expect your opposition to do that. They kept it simple and picked up wickets for that.”

Mhambrey refused to look too far forward into the sport, with India dealing with the prospect of batting final on a quickly crumbling pitch.

“What is important is that we have two set batsmen [Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav] at the crease. We have a 40+ partnership going. I think they have really applied themselves. The important thing is we get as close as possible to the English total and then we will see tomorrow.

“What we need to look at is, that we are going to chase. The target will differ but mentally we will have to be ready to chase. We have to bat well in the second innings, whatever the target is. Let’s keep it that simple,” added Mhambrey.