India vs England: Turning tracks not a foregone conclusion, says Mark Wood

England being done for by spinning tracks on sub-continent pitches is not a “foregone conclusion” anymore and the evidence of it was presented in Hyderabad. India suffered a shock 28-run loss in the first Test of the five-match series. England rode on vice-captain Ollie Pope’s 196 run knock and debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley’s seven-wicket haul to fashion a memorable 28-run win. The shock loss has given India a lot to think about before the second Test starts on 2 March, said visiting team’s pacer Mark Wood. “I don’t know what (pitch) they will produce (for the second Test). India have got the potential to produce any wicket here. I’ve played in World Cup games and IPL games where it’s seamed, flat pitches, spinning wickets. They have the potential to do any wicket they want. “But now, we’ve given them something to think about. It’s not a foregone conclusion that we are going to turn up here and they’re going to spin us out,” Wood was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. Pope dominated India’s spin bowling department of Ravinchandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jaedja and Axar Patel in England’s second innings. “Ollie Pope has played a fantastic knock, they’re now going to have to go analyse, like we would do if things didn’t go well, and analyse how they are going to try and combat that,” Wood said. “We’ve won one game, it’s a hell of an achievement, but I don’t think we need to get too far ahead of ourselves. “Don’t build this up now and say, ‘ah we’re going to win’. It’s the same again. Go into the next game with the same belief, same process and hopefully get the same result,” Wood added. The 34-year-old was the solitary pacer in England’s playing XI and said it felt weird when skipper Ben Stokes informed him that he’d be bowling micro-spells. “When we were at the ground, he (Stokes) said probably one or two. I mean, I thought I may not even open the bowling in second innings. But it was like ‘one over; that’s it’. “So that was a bit weird. Especially when the captain says you’re going to bowl one over with the new ball and it was a bit like, right, I’ll practice one over with the new ball,” he said. “Very rarely would you think you’d bowl one over and then be off. But weirdly I trust what he says. One over? Right, okay, I’ll give it everything for this over. And then he said ‘rest’ and I’m not annoyed. Like, I get it, we’re going to spin now. So it’s just a bit different.” Wood finally bowled 25 overs while remaining wicketless. In contrast, his Indian counterpart Jasprit Bumrah took six wickets, including 4 for 41 in the second innings. “Bumrah didn’t do me any favours by bowling like a genius,” Wood said. “That was tough! It was a bit odd, a bit weird at times. Usually at points during the game I’d think ‘I might bowl here’ but the spin is doing the damage. “I said to Jimmy (Anderson) that I found it more bizarre that I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I was sort of working it out as I went along. Usually if Jimmy is bowling a spell he can say to me ’this worked well’, or ‘what about this?’ You are talking to the captain and not really knowing how it’s going to go,” he added.