'Looks a bit better to seam' - Zak Crawley shares first thoughts on Visakhapatnam surface

After a surprise loss in the first Test of the five-match series against England in Hyderabad, there are widespread discussions around the pitch for the second game beginning from February 02 in Visakhapatnam. Notably, India were handed a surprise loss in the series opener as England made a remarkable comeback after being 190-run behind in the first innings and went on to win the game by 28 runs.

Hence, the Indian team management is expected to make an even tougher rank turner for the second game to entangle the England batters in their spin. However, England opener Zak Crawley shared his first thoughts about Visakhapatnam's surface and stated that it was a bit on the greener side

“So, this wicket looks a bit better to seam, according to the guys, I haven’t seen it, like I said, but that’s what they said. It’s just a bit damper, I think here it seems like they’re a bit greener, so we’ll see what happens there,” Crawley was quoted as saying by News18.

Further speaking ahead, Crawley opened up on England’s sweep strategy against the Indian spinners and revealed that they use both reverse sweep and sweep according to the field setup.

“I think sweeping and reverse sweeping when it’s spinning is a good option. It takes the spin out of it, kind of. If you can get to the pitch, bit like Pope did so well. And I think the reverse sweep is more common for us because there are just fewer fields there. They always seem to have two men out on the leg side. If they had two men out on the offside, we’d probably play the sweep; kind of just trying to hit in the gaps and the sweep, their reverse sweep comes probably just as naturally to us as a normal sweep,” he added.

Crawley also mentioned that Jack Leach isn’t ruled out of the second Test yet. Notably, the left-arm spinner injured his knee midway through the game in Hyderabad but still came on to bowl in the second innings.

You can never know with Jack, so we’ll see in a couple of days: Crawley

“He’s a tough kid, though, Leachy. So, I’m not sure. You can never know with Jack, so we’ll see in a couple of days. But, yeah, you can never really ride him. So we’ll see how he pulls up,” Crawley further said.

Meanwhile, India will have a huge task of making a comeback in the series with KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja also ruled out of the second game. Indian captain Rohit Sharma will be eager to prove his naysayers wrong as he carries an inexperienced batting lineup in the second game.