Mike Atherton fears India may produce flat pitches for the final two Tests

India may be forced into a U-turn and produce flat pitches for the final two Tests in order to nullify England's spinners after their heavy defeat in Mumbai, says Mike Atherton.

Combination

India resumed the fourth day on 117-7 in the second innings and could only muster 142 despite Gautam Gambhir's 65, as Panesar (5-61) and Swann (4-43) again held sway. "Panesar was quite outstanding," said Atherton, "bowling at pace was the key thing on this pitch and Graeme Swann, at the other end, increased his pace as well. "He got better and better through the game. I didn't think actually that in that very first spell, in which he picked up that wicket of [Virender] Sehwag and produced a great wicket to get rid of [Sachin] Tendulkar, he bowled as well as I've seen him bowl before. "He didn't quite find his length but as he got into the game he bowled better and better. "He's slightly fortunate, I suppose, that whenever he comes into a team because England want two spinners it's always because they perceive that the pitch is going to spin so he's always got helpful conditions to bowl in whereas Swann as the first-choice spinner often plays on seaming pitches and has to do a job for the seamers at the other end. "But what a thing for England to have out here in India where all of the talk has been of spin - suddenly we are saying England have got better spinners than India. "The stats tell you that 19 wicket out of 20 fell to spin for the first time since the late 50s and Jim Laker and Tony Lock, which is kind of regarded as England's greatest spinning combination and now you are looking at Swann and Panesar up in that league." You can see live coverage of the third Test between India and England from Kolkata at 3am a week on Wednesday, on Sky Sports 1 HD.