File photo of Graeme Swann.
With India vs England series all set to begin from February 5 in Chennai with four-match Test series, England spinner Graeme Swann points out the flaw in England's ability to understand spin.
To an avid follower of cricket, England's getting bamboozled by spinners, especially in sub-continent conditions, has been a known secret. In fact, teams have often reaped the benefit of this glaring error almost on all the occasion in the past.
Swann pointed out that Joe Root's field placement during the recently-concluded Sri Lanka tour, which Englishmen won 2-0, was all over the place.
"English cricket still doesn’t really understand spin or captain it well — and that’s not a dig at Joe Root," Swann told Daily Mail.
"One thing I will say, and Bumble (David Lloyd) mentioned this on Sky in the Sri Lanka series, is that I can’t understand having a deep cover to spinners like Joe did. It’s just a field placing for a dirty ball. By all means, play with a long-on or long-off or deep midwicket if you’re trying to tempt the batsman into something, but never ever have a deep cover."
He further added that current England spinners have quality but they lack a bit of swagger.
"And what England’s spinners really need is a bit of swagger. Very few players feel that way in international cricket because of the amount of respect they give the opposition and the awe and wonder at being there.
"If I could sit down with Jack Leach and Dom Bess now, I would tell them to just go out there and think, 'This is where I belong'," he said.
England are likely to play Jack Leach and Dom Bess as their regular spinners for the first Test with Moeen Ali returning to the squad recently after a bout with COVID-19.
