The hosts fielded four spinners at the cost of a second pacer, going into the game with only one fast bowler in Ishant Sharma. The four slow bowlers in MS Dhoni’s arsenal are off-spinners R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and left-arm spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
MS Dhoni’s decision to go into the must-win encounter against the Three Lions with only one attacking seamer earned him a lot of criticism from the Indian cricketing fraternity. But debutant Jadeja, who accounted for big men Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott on the first day of his Test career, backed the decision of the selectors and skipper for playing a spinner-studded XI saying the spin quartet would come handy in the latter stages of the match.
"Four spinners will come in handy later in the game. Especially in the second innings, via the bowlers' foot marks," the 24-year-old all-rounder said at the post-day media conference n Thursday evening.
"Currently wicket is neither helping fast men nor spinners. I think spinners will get more and more help as the game progresses. Fast bowlers' deliveries are going slow after pitching," he added further.
The Poms, who had earlier won the toss and opted bat first, were 199 for 5 at stumps on day one, with rookie Joe Root, playing his maiden Test, unbeaten on 31 and experienced Matt Prior not out on 34.
Jadeja, who was handed over his Test cap by Indian batting prodigy Sachin Tendulkar, said that his side was aiming to restrict the visitors to a first innings total between 300 and 350.
"The less number of runs we give the better it will be for us. Ball will start turning on day two or three. As footmarks, develop ball will starting turning more. We should restrict them to 300-350," said the Saurashtra all-rounder who forced his way into the Test side as replacement for struggling Yuvraj Singh.
England currently lead the series 2-1 and need to at least draw the ongoing Nagpur Test to script their firsts series win in India in almost 28 years.
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