"Didn't expect pitch to..."- Paras Mhambrey's huge statement after India's batting failure in Ranchi Test

India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey opened up about the poor outing of the Indian team on Day 2 of the ongoing fourth Test in England. He admitted that they didn’t expect the pitch to be that low on Day 2 itself. 

India didn’t have a great outing on the Day 2 of the ongoing. England surely have put them on the back foot in the game and are looking for favorites to win the game now. The hosts ended the visitors’ innings on 353 runs and it was expected that they would come up with a better performance with the bat 

However, that wasn’t the case as Indian batters faced a terrible collapse. After skipper Rohit Sharma (2) got out, Yashasvi Jaiswal (73) and Shubman Gill (38) held the fort at that moment it seemed that India would take a lead because of the way the duo was batting. 

However, the wicket of Shubman Gill changed the fortunes of the Indian team. They suffered a terrible collapse as Rajat Patidar (17), Ravindra Jadeja (12) Sarfaraz Khan (12) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1) lost wickets early as the hosts were reduced to 177/6. 

The pitch played a massive part in the Indian collapse. The ball stayed extremely low and batters had no clue of how the surface would play after pitching. England spinner Shoaib Bashir was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged four scalps. 

Paras Mhambrey while talking about the pitch didn’t expect the pitch to play that low on Day 2 itself. He said that they were aware that the pitch would play slow but they didn’t expect the variable bounce. Speaking to reporters, he explained: 

“From the couple of games that we have seen out of here previously, generally, the nature of the wicket gets slower and slower as the days progress. In the past also, in a couple of games that were played here, it has gotten slower and gotten on the lower side as well. 

“So we expected that. But to be honest, we didn’t expect the pitch to play that low on Day 2 itself. I think couple of balls did keep low in the first innings also. That’s what we didn’t expect. We expected it to get slower, but not the variable bounce that we have seen over the last couple of days.” 

Don’t think the venues are something that we can control – Paras Mhambrey 

Paras Mhambrey further pointed out that the Indian team didn’t ask for any specific type of pitch before coming to Ranchi for the fourth Test. He believes that pitch isn’t rank turner because there’s a variable bounce. Speaking about the same, he elaborated: 

“I don’t think the venues are something that we can control. This was a venue allotted for the series. The way the wicket plays out here is similar. It’s always not been a rank-turner. I wouldn’t call this a rank-turner because there was variable bounce. I don’t think there were too many balls that really spun sharply or unplayable deliveries.” 

After being reduced to 177/7, Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav bailed the team out of trouble. They added 42 runs together and made sure that India went past 200 runs. While the keeper-batter remained unbeaten at 30 runs, the spinner was batting at 17 at stumps on Day 2. They would be hoping to take India closer to England’s total.