'India pushing conditions to extremities': Ben Foakes hopes good batting from England

England's wicket-keeper batsman Ben Foakes on Sunday said his team will have to look for ways to bat well on spinning conditions, adding ''we know it is going to spin from the very first ball''. Foakes, whose comment comes amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Indian pitches, said English batsmen will have to be ''good enough'' to counter Indian spinners in the next Test match and score big runs because the ball is going to spin again as the hosts are pushing their conditions to the extremities. 

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''They have a couple of class spinners and we did not have answers to them so I think going forward, we have to be good enough to counter that to score big runs on the board. I think we know what we are going to get in the last Test in terms of surface. They are pushing their conditions to the extremities and we know it is going to spin from ball number one, it is about finding a way to play well in those conditions,'' Foakes said. 

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India hammered England in the pink-ball Test match and won the game by ten wickets within two days. Indian spinners Axar Patel and Ravi Ashwin played a vital role in India's victory as the duo picked up 18 wickets between them. Axar Patel, who was awarded the Man of Match trophy, scalped two fifers - 6 wickets in the first innings and 5 wickets in the second innings. Batsmen from both sides failed to put up big scores on the board, which sparked debate around the pitch. 

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Critics of the pitch argue that a Test match should be a game of bat and the ball, where pitches should be prepared in such a way that they provide equal chances to both batsmen and bowlers. They further add that a Test match ending within two days is not good for the future of the game. 

'Nobody complains about seaming pitches'

However, players including Indian skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravi Ashwin dismissed criticism of the pitch as they blamed batsmen for the poor show. Cricket experts and players from all over the world backed the Ahmedabad pitch, slamming critics for blaming the surface instead of assessing players' performances. Australian spin legend Nathan Lyon asked why nobody complains when batsmen crumble on seaming pitches. Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell blamed English players' poor techniques against spin for the collapse.   

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(With inputs from ANI)