Former England skipper and explosive batsman Kevin Pietersen on Thursday made it clear that picking Ravichandran Ashwin’s doosara will be key to England’s success in the upcoming Test series against India.
The Alastair Cook-led side will take on India in a five-match Test series commencing on November 9 in Rajkot.
“Ashwin is a good bowler. He uses his variations very well, especially the way he approaches the crease. He’s always looking to attacking and outfox a batsman,” Pietersen was quoted as saying by a leading daily.
“When I’ve played against him, I could pick his doosra, so I was OK. But if England’s batsmen can’t pick his doosra they’ll have issues. I was always looking to smash his off-spinner. The low bounce might make it harder, but that’s part of the challenge of playing in India,” he added.
Recently, the England side tumbled against Bangladesh and faced an embarrassing defeat in the second Test as England cricketers failed to tackle Mehedi Hasan, who was playing his first series, and Shakib Al Hasan’s spin.
England’s coach Trevor Bayliss has expressed concern over his batsmen’s failure and said it would take a while to iron out their issues against spin.
On being asked to compare Joe Root and Virat Kohli, to that former skipper said: “Kohli is as good as it gets. He is right up there. Root has good numbers, but it’s unfair to even compare Joe with Virat because his numbers are just phenomenal. He plays so aggressively – sometimes it’s like – are you serious? The way he makes big runs for his team so often is just remarkable.”
