India’s Test lower middle-order batsman Hanuma Vihari who is currently in England playing the County Championship said that the conditions will be challenging in the English summer for the Indian team. Vihari had a string of low scores in the County Championship and later he also got dropped from the local team.
“The Kookaburra gets soft in Australia after a while. But the Dukes does something all day — off the wicket or in the air. There’s always something for the bowlers and that is the key challenge,” said Vihari, who had a three-match stint with Warwickshire county in April.
The Number 6 batsman was unproductive after failing twice with the score of two eights but however he got one half-century in the County Championship.
“When I came to England in April, it was quite cold. Even if you believe you are set, you can still be surprised by the movement. Like when I got out in my 30s against Essex, where I thought the wicket was quite good to bat on, but the odd ball was doing something because of the hard seam on the Dukes,” Vihari told espncricinfo.com
“Jamie Porter [right-arm seamer] angled it in, so I was playing for the line and then the ball straightened off the wicket. It was a decent delivery, but it surprised me with the movement, because in the previous few overs it was doing nothing off the wicket, then suddenly the ball kicked off the wicket,” he explained about the unpredictable nature of the pitch.
“In Australia, it [guard] was more towards leg-stump because there is no lateral movement there, so you can play beside the line of the ball. Here, in England, you have to get more in line and judge the off stump more because of the movement of the ball,” said the middle-order batsman whose gritty unbeaten 23 off 161 balls helped India draw the third Test in Australia in Sydney.
“I start on the middle stump…at the same time, you have to remember that if it is a stump-line ball, you have to play straight,” he added.
The 27-year-old said that handling overhead conditions is gonna be important especially since it is the early part of English summer.
“Definitely, that’s the challenge here. The overhead conditions play a part as well because when it is sunny, it gets a bit easier to bat, but when it is overcast, the ball moves all day. That was the challenge I faced early on in this season of county cricket — because it was quite cold and the ball was doing a lot off the wicket,” added Vihari.
“I thought it was full enough for me to drive, but again, in England, you have to be really certain with your shot selection. In India, you can get away with a push, or even if it is not there to drive, you can still get away driving on the up. If I were to play that ball a second time, I would try to play as of late as possible,” he said.
