The England team defeated India by 28 runs in the first match of the five-Test series to take a 1-0 lead in the series. In the Hyderabad Test, the English batsmen faced the Indian spinners bravely, especially Ollie Pope, who played a brilliant century. Meanwhile, opening batsman Zak Crawley says that the use of sweep and reverse sweep by the English batsmen against Indian spinners is a perfect way to throw out the spin plan.

Zak Crawley scored 20 and 31 runs in both the innings respectively. Despite not playing big innings, Crawley played an important role in giving England a great start. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the second Test, Crawley elaborated on the strategy of playing a sweep or reverse sweep.

It takes the spin out of the plan – Jack Crowley

He said, I think sweep and reverse sweep are good options when the ball is spinning. This takes spin out of the plan. I think reverse sweep is common for us because the ground is less there. It seems they always have two men on the leg side. If they had two men on the other side, we might have played a sweep. The reverse sweep probably comes as naturally to us as the common sweep.

Speaking on baseball, he said, it (baseball) comes naturally because many teams are playing more aggressively. When I first came to England the mentality was to take my time and play a long innings. I didn’t think it would come naturally to me and some other people. A lot of us play a little better under that.

Zak Crawley feels that the Indian team is very strong in its home conditions despite the absence of many key players in the upcoming second Test. Let us tell you that Virat Kohli is already out of two Tests, while KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja suffered injuries, due to which they have been ruled out of the second Test.