Blame it on rotation! Former England players, media slam ECB

England Test greats Nasser Hussain and Ian Bell along with the British media on Friday lambasted the England and Wales Cricket Board ECB over their rotation policy following the teamrsquos 10wicket defeat in the third Test against India inside two days handing the hosts an unassailable 21 lead in the fourmatch seriesNasser HussainJoe Root and his men struggled on the spinfriendly Motera pitch in Ahmedabad managing just 112 and 81 in their two innings respectively Former England skipper Hussain who represented England in 96 Tests felt that the management should pick and choose a series wisely while rotating playersConsistency requiredldquoWhat I will say is that I have been consistent about when I would have rotated I would have had this India series as one of my majors if yoursquore putting it in golfing terms as well as the T20 World Cup and rotated in 50over cricketrdquo Bell said England were guilty of thinking too far ahead and have gone wrong with the constant chopping and changing in a big Test series like this oneldquoI think England have been guilty of thinking too far ahead of having a squad for the Ashes when actually this is bigger than the Ashes this is probably as big as the Ashesrdquo Bell said ldquoWhy are we rotating in the biggest Test series you are playing in For me thatrsquos where England have gone a bit wrongrdquo he addedIan BellBell feels sticking to winning combinations is important while competing with the best teams in the world He said form is subject to playing ldquoIn international cricket you have to be so careful between the balance of looking after your players and doing bubbles but donrsquot look too far ahead International cricket changes all the time form comes in and out as you play When you are playing well donrsquot lose it or change it winning combinations are so important to keep against the best teams in the worldrdquoMedia barbsThe British media too slammed its cricket teamrsquos abject surrender to India in the pinkball Test holding the muchdebated rotation policy and technical failures of its batsmen responsible for the humiliation even as the Motera pitch also drew some flakThe Guardian newspaper focussed on Englandrsquos own shoddy display ldquoInquest into Englandrsquos twoday thrashing will yield no easy answersrdquo read the headline of its report ldquoIt is hard to work out what to blame for the disastrous third Test defeat against India when so many things went wrongrdquo The newspaper went on to pin the blame on the rotation policy which led to resting of key players during the series the failure to read the conditions and ldquothe hangover from the heavy defeat in Chennai last weekrdquoThe Sun called England inept and criticised the visitorsrsquo selection policy ldquoInept England humiliated in India on an Ahmedabad bunsenburner with one spinner and four No 11 batsmenrdquo the paper wrote in a column by Dave Kidd Wisden summed up the defeat saying ldquoNever in the history of Test matches in this country has English cricket been made to look quite so poorrdquo