Blame it on rotation! Former England players, media slam ECB

An England batsman is clean bowled on Day Two of the third Test v India at Motera on Thursday. Pic/BCCI

England Test greats Nasser Hussain and Ian Bell along with the British media, on Friday, lambasted the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over their rotation policy following the team's 10-wicket defeat in the third Test against India inside two days, handing the hosts an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series.

Nasser Hussain

Joe Root and his men struggled on the spin-friendly Motera pitch in Ahmedabad, managing just 112 and 81 in their two innings respectively. Former England skipper Hussain, who represented England in 96 Tests, felt that the management should pick and choose a series wisely while rotating players.

Consistency required
"What I will say is that I have been consistent about when I would have rotated. I would have had this India series as one of my majors, if you're putting it in golfing terms, as well as the T20 World Cup, and rotated in 50-over cricket." Bell said England were guilty of thinking too far ahead and have gone wrong with the constant chopping and changing in a big Test series like this one.

"I think England have been guilty of thinking too far ahead of having a squad for the Ashes when actually this is bigger than the Ashes, this is probably as big as the Ashes," Bell said. "Why are we rotating in the biggest Test series you are playing in? For me that's where England have gone a bit wrong," he added.

Ian Bell

Bell feels sticking to winning combinations is important while competing with the best teams in the world. He said form is subject to playing. "In international cricket you have to be so careful between the balance of looking after your players and doing bubbles but don't look too far ahead. International cricket changes all the time, form comes in and out as you play. When you are playing well don't lose it or change it, winning combinations are so important to keep against the best teams in the world."

Media barbs
The British media too slammed its cricket team's abject surrender to India in the pink-ball Test, holding the much-debated rotation policy and technical failures of its batsmen responsible for the humiliation even as the Motera pitch also drew some flak.

The Guardian newspaper focussed on England's own shoddy display. "Inquest into England's two-day thrashing will yield no easy answers," read the headline of its report. "It is hard to work out what to blame for the disastrous third Test defeat against India when so many things went wrong." The newspaper went on to pin the blame on the rotation policy, which led to resting of key players during the series, the failure to read the conditions, and "the hangover from the heavy defeat in Chennai last week."

The Sun called England inept and criticised the visitors' selection policy. "Inept England humiliated in India on an Ahmedabad bunsen-burner with one spinner and four No. 11 batsmen," the paper wrote in a column by Dave Kidd. Wisden summed up the defeat saying: "Never in the history of Test matches in this country has English cricket been made to look quite so poor."