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England batsmen work at ironing out chinks against spin
They dealt with spin quite well during the series-levelling win in the Mumbai Test, but the visiting England cricket team's batsmen continued to practice against tweakers ahead of the third Test against India starting in Kolkata on December 5.
Two local club spinners -- one left-arm orthodox and another leg-spinner -- along with Monty Panesar bowled at the nets in tandem.
Monty, particularly, bowled his heart out as the English cricketers tried to master orthodox spin.
Earlier, the English cricketers arrived in two batches with Kevin Pietersen arriving in the afternoon.In-form captain Alastair Cook, who has two centuries from two Tests, was seen negotiating the throw-ins from bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed and later the duo engaged in deep discussion, while the remaining English players trained in the two practice nets.
'There will always be challenges left in the spin department'
Batsman Jonny Bairstow later acknowledged that the team still has challenges left to deal with despite dominating the Indian spin trio of Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin in the Wankhede Test.
"It's still going to be tough. There will always be challenges left in the spin department. With the weather conditions and with the reverse swing, it would be a massive challenge for us. But we will be looking forward to dealing with that in the next Test," Bairstow conceded.
As they practiced in tandem, a few yards away, the wicket lay covered.
"Honestly, we did not have a look at it (the pitch). That's not something we do normally before the match. I'm sure the Indians have had a detailed look and take the right decision," he said.