England great calls Ranchi pitch ‘shocking’, U-turn after Joe Root’s century cricket news

A lot of attention is being paid to the Ranchi pitch for the fourth India vs England Test. Although as of now, there are monsters that can make noise, there are a lot of discussions around it. From confusing Ben Stokes to being called a ‘shocker’ on the eve of a Test match, the Ranchi pitch has seen it all. On Saturday, the second day of play, Ollie Robinson gifted away his wicket after scoring a career-best 58, resulting in England’s first innings ending at 353 runs, while Joe Root remained unbeaten on 122.

On the first day of the match, former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote on Twitter: “There’s an old saying… don’t judge a pitch until both teams have batted and bowled on it… but honestly. .It looks shocking.” ..#INDvsENG” Michael Vaughan posted on Twitter on Friday.

There is an old saying… don’t evaluate a pitch until both teams have batted and bowled on it… but honestly… this looks shocking… #INDvsENG

– Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) 23 February 2024

He then took a U-turn and wrote: “Apparently the pitch is no longer shocking.. #INDvsENG”

The pitch is clearly not shocking anymore.. #INDvsENG

– Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) 23 February 2024

In between, in those two posts Vaughan lauded Joe Root for abandoning the aggressive ‘baseball approach’ and scoring a century. He wrote, “Nice to see common sense ball.. #INDvsENG.”

Nice to see common sense ball.. #INDvsENG

– Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) 23 February 2024

Obviously, the way England batsman Root faced the Indian bowling and pitch, Vaughan had to change his opinion.

In reply, India lost the wicket of captain Rohit Sharma (2) cheaply, due to which till lunch, India’s score was 34 runs for one wicket and it is 319 runs behind England. The experienced James Anderson bowled a ball off Rohit’s back which, after being pitched on the perfect length, went just short of the surface, took the edge of the Indian skipper’s bat and was caught by Ben Foakes.

Yashasvi Jaiswal (27 runs) was their confident player and Shubman Gill (4) was supporting him at the break.

England added 51 valuable runs to their overnight total of 302/7 as the Indian attack failed to build on the early lead. After scoring 112/5 at lunch on the first day, England’s last five batsmen added 241 runs.

While Mohammed Siraj (2/78) made mistakes in his line and length, debutant Akash Deep could not add to his three-wicket haul to return with 3/38 in 19 overs.

For India, Ravindra Jadeja took all three wickets, taking 4 for 67 in 32.5 overs.

Root, who played the innings deep with his classic century for a little over six hours, was out for 122 off 274 balls (10×4).

With PTI inputs