But having said all that, I was mystified by Joe Root’s tactics between lunch and tea. On a flat pitch, and on the fourth afternoon — probably the hottest of the series — every other team in the world would have been bowling their frontline spinner. Instead, Root kept flogging seamers Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who have been going hard at India all series. If you’re the spinner in this side, you should be doing a job for your captain on the fourth afternoon. On an extremely flat Oval pitch, they needed their captain and their No 1 spinner to be on top of their games — and neither quite managed it.

Source: Daily Mail September 05, 2021 21:33 UTC