"Just broke the momentum for them"- Brad Hogg on England's break to Abu Dhabi during Test series against India
Former Australian cricketer Brad Hogg claimed England lost their momentum in the Test series against India after their short break to Abu Dhabi between the second Test in Visakhapatnam and the third Test in Rajkot.
The visitors were highly competitive even in their loss in Visakhapatnam and the series was nicely poised at 1-1. However, after their return from the break, England lost in Rajkot by a mammoth 434 runs.
They then couldn't take advantage of their first-innings lead in Ranchi and were handed a comprehensive innings defeat in Dharamsala. Speaking in a video posted on his YouTube channel, here's what Brad Hogg had to say about England's break:
"England were disappointing in the series, there's no doubt about it. They went for a holiday to the UAE in between and that's not good enough. You have to stay in the country and stay on the same time zone. I thought going on the holiday just broke the momentum for them."
Hogg also shed light on how England batters were dismissed bowled and LBW on more than twice as many occasions as their Indian counterparts in the series. He added:
"If we look at the whole series, England batters' dismissals were disappointing. They weren't reading the length of the ball well and weren't able to use the feet well against the spinners. They were found out. Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Jadeja were just too good for the England batters."
England have now played 10 Test matches in the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle and have lost six, winning just three and drawing one. They have also been docked a total of 19 WTC points because of their slow over rate and find themselves in eighth position in the table with just 17.5 point percentage.
England lost belief throughout the series: Brad Hogg
Brad Hogg noted that England's bowling attack was inexperienced. However, he gave the example of the Indian team who had similar inexperience in their batting with big names like Virat Kohli unavailable for selection.
As the Indian batters grew in confidence throughout the series, Brad Hogg felt England went the other way and stated:
"England had inexperience in their bowling department, but India had inexperience in their batting department. But they were able to back those youngsters, give them a role and develop them along the way. They guided them through good strong belief. England lost belief throughout the series."
Head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes have got the biggest reality check of their tenure so far and will need to find ways of adapting to different conditions with Ashes 2025/26 approaching.