Waited for batsmen to make mistakes: Nadeem

The dropped catches only added insult to injury as the tourist sucked the juice out of the India unit, which looked drained after two full days under the sun. On a batting belter, the English duo of Joe Root (218 off 377 balls) and Ben Stokes (82 off 118 balls) was in punishing mood, denying time for the India attack to settle down.

The left-right combination was particularly severe on the spin triumvirate of Ravichandran Ashwin (2 for 132), Washington Sundar (0 for 98) and Shahbaz Nadeem (2 for 167). While skipper Root employed the sweep to perfection, Stokes toyed with the tweakers by showing positive intent during their 124-run stand.

Left-arm orthodox Nadeem, who addressed the media after England ended the day at 555 for eight, said that India had no option but to bowl defensively on the flat Chepauk deck. “The plan was to bowl in good areas and wait for the batsmen to make mistakes. If you try to over-attack in order to get wickets, you will tend to give a lot of runs,” Nadeem, a last-minute inclusion in the India squad, told reporters.

“There is one rough spot on the pitch which could cause problems for left-handers. The rest of the areas remain intact and the pitch is still very good for batting,” he added. Nadeem, a stalwart in the domestic circuit, couldn’t get on top of the English pairing of Root and Stokes, which took the attack to the opposition.

The 31-year-old also spoke about his duels with the rival batsmen. “I was trying to bowl into the rough outside the off-stump, but Stokes counter-attacked by playing the reverse sweep. So, it forced me to change my line and length a little bit. I then tried to bowl on the wicket and get him out,” explained Nadeem, who had the last laugh against both Root and Stokes.

“Root is a great batsman and has been in great form. He is sweeping well. We need to plan whether we want to bowl on the stumps or outside the off-stump. The bowlers will have problems when a batsman starts sweeping, but we need to stick to our plans. We need to wait for him to make a mistake.” Nadeem was drafted into the main set-up in the eleventh hour, after a knee injury to fellow left-arm spinner Axar Patel. Asked if he was underprepared for the series opener, Nadeem replied: “I was in the stand-by squad, so I knew that I might get a chance. The day before the Test began, I was told that I would be playing.”