England Great Calls Ranchi Pitch A ‘Shocker’, After Joe Root’s Ton Does U-Turn

The pitch at Ranchi for the fourth India vs England Test has been under lot of focus. Though so far, there are demons as such which are likely to create a noise, the discussions around it have been immense. From confusing Ben Stokes on the eve of the Test match to being referred to as ‘shocker, the Ranchi pitch has seen it all. On Saturday, on Day 2 of the game, Ollie Robinson gifted away his wicket after making a career-best 58 that resulted in England’s first innings ending at 353 even as Joe Root remained unbeaten on 122.

On the first day of the match, former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote on X: “The old saying .. Do not judge a pitch till both teams have batted and bowled on it .. but let’s be honest .. this one looks a shocker ..#INDvsENG” Michael Vaughan posted on X on Friday. 

The old saying .. Do not judge a pitch till both teams have batted and bowled on it .. but let’s be honest .. this one looks a shocker .. #INDvsENG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 23, 2024

Then he did a U-Turn and wrote: “The pitch is clearly no longer a shocker .. #INDvsENG” 

The pitch is clearly no longer a shocker .. #INDvsENG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 23, 2024

In the middle, of those two posts Vaughan lauded Joe Root for shunning the aggressive ‘Bazball approach’ and scoring a ton. “Lovely to see Common sense Ball .. #INDvsENG,” he wrote.

Lovely to see Common sense Ball .. #INDvsENG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 23, 2024

Clearly, the way England batter Root dealt with the Indian bowling and the pitch made Vaughan change his opinion. 

In their reply, India lost skipper Rohit Sharma (2) cheaply to be 34 for one at lunch, trailing England by 319 runs. Veteran James Anderson saw the back of Rohit with a delivery that moved away slightly off the surface after pitching on a perfect length, taking edge from Indian captain’s bat that was taken by Ben Foakes.

Yashasvi Jaiswal (27 batting) was his usual confident self and giving him company was Shubman Gill (4) at the break.

England added 51 valuable runs to their overnight total of 302/7 as the Indian attack failed to make early penetration. The last five England batters added 241 runs after being 112/5 at lunch on the opening day.

While Mohammed Siraj (2/78) erred in his line and length, debutant Akash Deep could not add to his tally of three wickets to return with 3/38 from 19 overs.

For India, Ravindra Jadeja took all the three wickets to return with 4/67 from his 32.5 overs.

Root, who dug in deep with his classical century spanning a little more than six hours, remained stranded on 122 from 274 balls (10×4).

With PTI inputs