Two-day shambles and Axar better late than never... TEST MATCH TALKING POINTS

NICK HOWSON rounds up day two of the third Test as India stride into a 2-1 series lead over a beleaguered England

India v England: 3rd Test scorecard

India complete 10-wicket win in Ahmedabad

Test match pitch?

Just the 22nd Test to finish inside two days. The sixth since the turn of the century. The seventh shortest to reach a result. It is the 10th lowest-scoring in history.

For once, I hope no one was watching this debacle on free-to-air TV. Channel 4 will be asking for a refund that this shambles. Dramatic dismissals soon turned into a procession, a conga line back into the India and England dressing rooms.

If you turned on Test cricket for the first time during this match, then let me warn you that it isn't always like this. It is for that reason that it has survived nearly 150 years and is idolised by millions.

A pitch which was breaking up mid-way through day one, creating more dust than your dad's old Morris Minor and needed a member of the ground staff to brush up debris in the fourth session cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered a one worthy of hosting a Test match.

It doesn't matter if you have the biggest cricket stadium in the world around it. These were poor conditions regardless of the standard you play at.

It doesn't, as some often claim, really matter if it is built to last five days. The ones which do, without any suggestion of change, are much worse.

This surface was treacherous to bat on mid-way through day two. You don't need to be an anorak of Test cricket to know that simply isn't good enough.

It is true that both teams could have batted on it better. England particularly fell short with 112 the first time around. But when Sir Alastair Cook, as he did while speaking on Channel 4, doesn't know how to play on it we have permission to be sympathetic.

Coupled with a pink ball that possesses a harder seam and skids on as a result, leading to a high number of dismissals to straight deliveries, there was nothing resembling an even contest between bat and ball. It was horribly unbalanced.

Commentators have been accused of rubbing their hands with glee at the sight of a green top but criticising when the ball grips. As with most aspects of life, neither extreme is acceptable.

There can be no argument about the result. India edged England with how they played the conditions, much like in the second Test. Rohit Sharma and Zak Crawley will testify that runs could be had if you played positively and with a plan. Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin and Jack Leach will tell you there were wickets around when you bowled with consistency.

Root channels Willis

Before we debate the merits of fielding more than one front-line spinner on a pitch that poses more questions than Jeremy Paxman, let's look back at Joe Root's finest day with the ball.

Ten years ago, while playing for Sheffield Collegiate CC, the Yorkshireman grabbed 8-42 as Castleford CC, including their top four, were dismissed for just 92 in 122 balls.

Brayden Clark, Andrew Bourke, William Simpson, Jamie Pickering, Scott Hopkinson, John Randerson, Jason Pitcher and Freddie Collins, your boys took one hell of a beating.

A decade on, and it was the turn of Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah to join the England captain's list of victims. He became the first England captain since Bob Willid in 1983 to take a five-for.

Root will be the first to admit that he and coach Chris Silverwood mid-read this pitch and have not balanced their team correctly.

Either one of Jofra Archer, James Anderson and Stuart Broad should be watching on. Even if Dom Bess isn't ready yet (he was named in the squad for the third Test) then that is what reserves Amar Virdi and Matt Parkinson are for.

For Jack Leach to be the only spinner in this team - the first time England are gone that way in India since 2001, Richard Dawson and a 10-wicket defeat in Mohali - is a giant oversight.

But Root at least made up for that selection error with a display with the ball (5-8) which it is safe to say, despite his heroics all those years ago, is the best in his career.

He bowled with consistency, put the ball in good areas and allowed the pitch to do the rest. It pulled the tourists kicking and screaming back into the contest.

If indeed Bess is fully fit, refreshed and available then a penny for his thoughts. If England are overlooking him in Asia then you have to wonder about his prospects in the immediate future.

^{England launched a stern counterattack in the fourth session}

Is Bairstow done?

It was disrespectful of England to not select their best team for the first Test in Chennai, according to Kevin Pietersen.

That would surely have included Jonny Barstow starting this series and playing all four Tests.

The 31-year-old has returned home, spent time with his family, flown back to India, gone through quarantine, trained for a few days and been recalled to make his second Test pair.

Bairstow made 47, 35*, 28 and 29 in Sri Lanka. Four starts which he failed to convert. Batsman throughout the game will tell you that is worst than getting a jaffer with your name on early on.

Eleven balls, no runs and three dismissals later and Bairstow's Test was done.

After asking for intent after a torrid first day against Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin, Bairstow went to the opposite end of the scale on day two.

He produced a simply crazy shot and was struck on the chest by Axar (DRS saved him), before pushing at one outside off-stump and being bowled. You don't need to be an expert on his Test career to have seen that coming.

The question is when will we see him again in a Test shirt?

Of course, the answer might be back in Ahmedabad next week when the fourth Tests gets underway.

But Dan Lawrence and Rory Burns might have something to say about that.

And with an English summer and an Ashes series to come, you have to wonder if that might be all she wrote. Root's men are not back in Asia until they face Pakistan in December 2022.

Given the options available in the current squad and those who may be knocking on the door in years to come (Tom Lammonby, Sam Hain, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Joe Clarke) you'd have to think that at 33 he'll be struggling to breakthrough.

^{Ravichandran Ashwin went to 400 Test wickets on day two}

Axar's late arrival

Nadeem Shahbaz might end up being that missing Sporcle answer for years to come when it comes to looking back on this series.

His performance in that first Test, when he was a late replacement for the injured Axar, looks all the more curious.

It ended with figures of 2-233. At 31, you wonder when the next call might come.

Just how different might have this series been if Axar had been available from the off?

His 18 wickets have come at a stunning 9.44. England have scored at barely two-an-over against him. They've really struggled to fend him off and rotate the strike.

After Lasith Embuldeniya in Sri Lanka, this has been another trial of left-arm spin.

The problem for Axar? A certain Ravindra Jadeja, who surely slots right back into this side in any corner of the world.

And it isn't as if the latest member of the 400 club Ashwin, is starting to slow down either.

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