Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez says…

Greetings! A common refrain in the lead-up to this match has been that when it comes to seamers, there can be only one (at most). Let’s have a look at some of the Tests played here to see whether that sort of extreme team selection really has any merit.

> “I hear you’re an opening bowler now, Jack. How did you get interested in that type of thing?”

Now the first thing to point out is that the Dr Y S Rajashekar Reddy Andhra Cricket Association–Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association Cricket Stadium has actually only hosted two previous Test matches. England played here in 2016 and then South Africa visited in 2019. India won both of those matches by over 200 runs.

The England match delivered a textbook scorecard of sliding team scores, suggesting a fairly typical Indian surface. The home team made 455, Virat Kohli top scoring with 167, and England countered with 255, with three batters who’ll be appearing this week making fifties (Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes). India then made 204 before blitzing England for just 158.

Spinners featured prominently for the home team with R Ashwin picking up a predictable five-for in the first innings. However, the story for England was a little different. Jimmy Anderson managed 3-62 in the first innings and Stuart Broad 4-33 in the second.

If I were Ben Stokes, I’d want to play both those men again this time around – sadly, as a result of Broad’s retirement, there can be only one.

> Stuart Broad: Titan of Ridiculousness

Batting seemed to get harder and harder in 2019 too. Again India batted first, this time racking up 502-7. The opening partnership alone was worth 317 with Mayank Agarwal making 215 and Rohit Sharma 176. South Africa mustered 431 in reply with Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock both making hundreds, only for Rohit to rack up another ton in the second innings. (Who says there can be only one?) India declared on 323-4 and then rolled South Africa for 191.

Was it all spin? Not quite. While Ashwin managed 7-145 in the first innings and predictably opened the bowling in the second, Mohammad Shami emerged with 5-35 after coming on first change.

What does this mean? Who knows? I may be a couple of thousand years old, but last week showed me that even I haven’t seen it all. All I’ll say is that even if it turns a fair bit, the players shouldn’t lose their heads.