Pic-England coah in fieald.pic courtesy-guardian
sports reporter,mumbai(weastar times/guardian):::Twenty five years ago this last Monday, in the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Graham Gooch played one of the most celebrated of limited-overs innings by an England batsman. He made 115 and it propelled the team into the final of the World Cup, much to the chagrin of the opponents and champions from 1983, India.
There was significance in it beyond the obvious, for to do so Gooch, not a habitual sweeper of spinners, had made a decision before his innings to sweep India's duo of left-arm bowlers, Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri, into oblivion. It was singleminded, determined and successful: between them, the pair conceded 103 runs from their 20 overs and England went on to win by 35 runs.
So Gooch, England's batting coach, knows what he is talking about when addressing the demands of countering spin bowling in subcontinent conditions, something his charges are certain to come up against in the course of the four-Test series.
This is not something that, for all their training camps and good intentions, England batsmen are naturally good at countering. It seems to be missing from the genes. In the UAE at the start of the year they were disastrous, although, curiously, as Gooch points out, against the ball that did not really turn significantly but which skidded on low.
"That," Gooch said, "really was a worry at the time." In Sri Lanka, they came to terms with it in more orthodox circumstances and managed to win the second Test to draw the series. Now, at some point, they can expect to encounter the slow turners of legend, and in case they do not find practice facilities that replicate it, Gooch has brought with him a rubber mat from which the ball will spin sharply.
If the spotlight will fall on the players, the coaches will also feel the heat and, as much as anything, these next few weeks will be about how well Gooch is able to convey the message implicit in that Mumbai World Cup innings: that batsmen have to be adaptable, understand the demands, think it through beforehand, realise that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to batting (or, as he stresses, coaching) and have the confidence to carry through a strategy.
"It is important that you are positive in outlook," Gooch said. "You need to defend resolutely and not be distracted by the noise going on around you. But then you have to find ways of scoring to keep the board moving and put the pressure on the opposition.
"In practice, I try to highlight the basics – play with the spin, do not commit yourself early, learn that there are periods of time where you just have to dig in and wait. The smart ones take these messages on board.
"It is not easy to develop our techniques in England where bland pitches and conditions in general mean that the ball does not spin. You need it to turn to learn, which is why I have the mat."
Although Gooch is at pains to stress the excellent facilities and decent opposition they have been afforded so far, he acknowledges that they have largely been kept away from good quality spinners in helpful conditions.
"I think we are aware of what is in store for us though," he said. "We will find some flat pitches and some that spin. And nothing alters the fact that beyond solid defence, we still have to be able to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps and to know when it is worth taking a risk to find the boundary and break up the bowling. Hopefully we are learning."
Meanwhile, England have confirmed that neither Stuart Broad nor Steven Finn will play in their final warmup match against Haryana that begins on Thursday.
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