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The fact that the second of five Test series is set in
the “City of Destiny” seems like a bit of a lost opportunity. Maybe
the order of the off-Broadway locations chosen for this India-England series
took recent history into account. There’s only a guarantee that the games up
front will be live.
But there was a distinct sense of fate about the Bay
as both teams touched down in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday afternoon. Next week at
this time, it might be all square, or — shock of the year — England might be
leading 2-0 going into their mid-series break in Abu Dhabi. When the touring
party reached India, only they thought this would be possible.
Only two previous Test matches have taken place at the
ACA-VDCA Stadium, beginning with England’s visit in November 2016. Both of
those matches went pretty much the same way: they were first good for batting,
but from day three onwards, the spin came into play. Similar to the surface
that was brought out in Hyderabad.
Due to prior experience, there is a suspicion that
Friday’s pitch would be more severe. Those who travelled throughout India in
2021 are all too familiar with the three crushing defeats that ensued after
their first-round triumph in Chennai. Ben Foakes, who was brought into the side
for the second Test of that series, said of the pitches, “All three were
probably the worst pitches I’ve batted on.”
“Going into that, I was thinking, ‘These are
horrific wickets – I just need to find a way to stay in’,” Foakes said.
“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.
“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?”
For Foakes, this ought to be an uncommon clear streak.
He was chosen on this tour specifically to play on fields that require spotless
maintenance. Harry Brook’s trip home for private reasons facilitated his
comeback to the playing eleven, with Bairstow instructed to concentrate just on
his batting at number five.
Foakes didn’t make an impact on the scorecard until
the final moments of the first Test, which prevented R Ashwin and Mohammed
Siraj from getting out of the wicket against Tom Hartley. Despite his one
mishap in the game—an early half-chance off KL Rahul off Joe Root’s bowling
during India’s opening innings—he emphasised the value of maintaining composure
in Indian conditions.
“The more extreme the conditions you know things
are occasionally going to wrong so you just have to mentally strong enough to
put it out of your mind,” he said. “There is a good chance the next
one is going to be a tough one. But you’d rather be in the game than watching
the ball do nothing in front of you.”