India vs England: Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali fail to make most of promising pitch

It was a day of reckoning for certain England players but while Jos Buttler looks finally to have crossed the Rubicon into Test cricket, England’s spinners, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, were found wanting in the most spin-friendly conditions so far in the series.

Buttler’s fine 76 enabled England to post 400, a total that would normally have brought scoreboard pressure to aid the bowlers, especially on a pitch dusting up by the over. But with expectation levels raised and without the safety blanket of a third spinner, Moeen and Rashid struggled to build the pressure required to take wickets.

While England’s batsmen were in battles red in tooth and claw against Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, scrapping hard for every run, India’s found they only had to sit tight for a few balls before the succour of a loose ball came along to relieve the tension. England were too short, too often, and it led to too many easy runs for their opponents.

It didn’t help that England have got the balance of their attack wrong in Mumbai. The conditions never warranted playing four pace bowlers, something they should perhaps have done in the previous Tests where spin was not so extravagant.

There is the irony, too, that Rashid’s progress and increasing reliability in the series persuaded Cook that two spinners were enough for this Test. It is an understandable logic but one England’s captain was probably regretting after India had eased to 146 for one by the close of day two.

England won easily on a similar pitch at the same venue four years ago with two spinners. On that occasion, Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann complemented each other perfectly, though it was Panesar, his metronomic approach shorn of all flight and fancy, who really damaged India with 11 wickets in the match.

By turning the ball away from India’s right-handers Panesar was almost unplayable but he bowled it at a pace, around 62 mph, not really achievable by a wrist-spinner like Rashid. With extra bounce in this pitch as compared to the previous two, it allowed India’s batsmen to take full toll of anything loose of which there was a surfeit.

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The state of the series means that England need to win here if they are to keep the contest alive. That, along with the raised expectations of making a big first innings total in challenging conditions, and the fact that Ashwin and Jadeja took all 10 wickets, meant that England's spinners were immediately under pressure.

While some tension can be creative, English tweakers have rarely relished it. Indeed, you could almost see it being transmitted from Rashid’s mind all the way through his body down to his spinning fingers and wrists.

It caused him to rush, not only through his action, but to false conclusions as well, such as the review he insisted on taking against Cheteshwar Pujara in the 24th over when India had reached 71 for one. It was a bizarre decision. Had it been a googly that Pujara had padded away then fair enough, but Rashid knew he had not bowled one of them but a slider and that was never going to come back enough to hit the stumps. It was a wasted review, but then not living up to expectations can make players clutch at straws.

Moeen was less profligate but, aside from the beauty he produced which turned sharply to bowl KL Rahul through the gate, he was not especially threatening either. Of course playing spin comes as second nature to most of India’s batsmen, and some pitches can go to sleep, but he and Rashid should have made it more difficult for them.

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If their toothlessness frustrated Buttler, who battled demons inside and out to make his score, he didn’t show it. It is something of a myth that Test cricket did not suit him for he began his red ball career with England well. It was only when the inevitable dip in form occurred, and he showed little appetite for making the necessary changes to defensive technique and approach, that the selectors sought a replacement.

In this Test he has shown great appetite, not only for building on his innings in the previous Test, but for making adjustments to counter India’s spinners. When he first came in on Thursday, Buttler had looked vulnerable, in particular to Ashwin, who was threatening both the inside and outside edge of his bat.

Resuming his knock on day two, Buttler combatted this by getting well across his crease so he could play outside the line of the ball thus making him less vulnerable to the outside edge. The curious thing, given Ashwin’s brilliance, is that he did not try to counter Buttler’s solution by going round the wicket (an angle that has proved problematic to Buttler before), but then even the best can become complacent.

He needed an ally to keep him company and Jake Ball duly supplied valuable support, the 31 he made from 60 balls being his longest innings in first-class cricket. His support and Buttler’s brilliance - he lifted one six off Ashwin clean out of the stadium - got England to the heady reaches of 400.

That total does not seem a intimidating total now as it first did. But things can change rapidly in India and with a night to ponder matters, England’s spinners can surely only get better.