‘Superior seam attack gives England edge’

Calcutta: Geoffrey Boycott has predicted that England will have an upper-hand over India all through the four-match series since they have a superior seam attack.

“England will have the beating of India every time they play them in this series because their seam attack is far superior, as they proved at Lord’s. And it is seam that does most of the damage in English Test matches,” Boycott wrote in his column for The Daily Telegraph.

The former England captain has also said that even if the pitch doesn’t support movement and the conditions are favourable for the Indian batsmen, the maximum that the visitors can achieve is a draw.

“If there is movement through the air or off the pitch in any of the forthcoming Tests England will fancy their chances. If it is a flat pitch, and the ball doesn’t move, then India’s iconic batsmen will make runs and it will finish up a draw,” Boycott said.

“With Zaheer Khan injured, and even when he is fit, they do not look to have a bowling attack to trouble England… Make no mistake, though. This was an exceptionally good performance by England to bowl India out on a fifth day pitch which was very good for batting,” he added.

Boycott, however, felt that though the England bowlers got enough help from the conditions on the fifth day, better application from the Indian batsmen could have saved the Test for them.

“There was just enough swing and a little bit of seam to interest the bowlers to use the slope at Lord’s, but if good batsmen had played carefully India could have survived for 98 overs.

“England’s seam bowlers pitched the ball up more and caught the Indians in two minds of whether to play or not play. Rahul Dravid had a tentative waft early on. Mahendra Singh Dhoni looked to play the ball and then decided to leave it, but it was too late and he nicked it,” he said.

He also said that the weight of expectations affected Sachin Tendulkar’s play.

“Tendulkar, who wasn’t feeling very well due to a virus, got sucked into negative thoughts and hardly played a shot.

“The burden of expectations of trying to save the game and make a good score at Lord’s, where he never prospers, just weighed him down. In one hour after lunch he scored five runs,” Boycott said.