This is the third consecutive overseas Test in which India’s bowlers have failed to defend totals Tamil News: Rahul Dravid took over the reins of the world’s best Test team from Ravi Shastri, fresh from a memorable and historic Test series win in Australia.
India vs England 2022, 5th Test Tamil News: In the third consecutive overseas Test, India failed to defend the fourth innings score. This time it was in England’s Edgbaston Test. Although the Indian team had 378 runs in hand, they gave away runs without losing wickets. The series ended 2-2. It can be said that this is a big loss for India. Because in 3 innings of this game, the Indian team was victorious.
But it slipped away in the fourth innings. Despite the batting prowess of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, it was a failure of the team’s bowling department. The England team deviated from their plan. Due to this, the Indian team had a chance to take a wicket.
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Last November, Rahul Dravid took over the reins of the world’s best Test team from Ravi Shastri, who was fresh off a memorable historic Test series win in Australia. And after four matches England led 2-1. A series defeat against a young Proteas side in South Africa and a defeat at Edgbaston marked a poor start for Dravid.
Where did India go wrong at Edgbaston?
The Indian team took a lead of 132 runs in the first innings. On the third day and the fourth day on the pitch, they had a chance to knock England out of the tournament. But when they lost 7 wickets for 92 on the fourth day, a collapse of the middle order made them retreat from that hope.
The match between Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant will be away from England for an hour on the fourth morning. But a jumping jack against Shreya’s short ball and his dismissal brought England back into the game. His restlessness created doubt among the batsmen who followed. Suddenly, England began to believe in their success, emptying the Indian low-order with the short ball before polishing it off. England’s fourth innings target was reduced to 378 instead of what could have been 475.
Not surprisingly, India’s batting coach Vikram Rathore called the team’s second innings batting performance mediocre. “I agree we had an ordinary day as far as batting is concerned. We were leading the game. We were in a position where we could have put them out of the game. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” Rathore said at the press conference later in the day: “Yes, they used the short ball scheme against us in the field. We had to focus a little better, not on purpose, but on strategy. We could have handled it a little differently.” He also said.
Bowling-wise, India made in-roads after the change of ball in the 21st over. But they erred during the match-winning partnership between Root and Bairstow.
With Ravindra Jadeja being used over the wicket from the start, there was a negative mood in stark contrast to the aggression of the Kohli-Shastri era. There was a rough pitch outside the right-hander’s leg stump and Jadeja was not accurate enough to consistently land the ball in that area. Also, Root never allowed the left-arm spinner to bowl the ball in the gully. He opened up the off side and went with the turn before bringing out the blocking sweep and reverse sweep to completely disrupt the bowler’s rhythm. “Root is the best player in the world against spin. Between (Virat) Kohli, (Steve) Smith, (Kane) Williamson, Root is the best,” Shastri said on commentary.
For a change, Jadeja could have been used as an attacking option from around the wicket. But tactical acuity is missing from the think tank.
Also, once Bairstow joins the route, the players in the field move widely individually. This allowed both batsmen to take singles with ease. England is never going to avoid baseball. They chased down a stunning fourth innings target of 290-plus against New Zealand. But India, with an even better bowling attack, should have shown the courage to hold the field and challenge the batsmen to the top.
The line the Indian fast bowlers stuck to against Bairstow was one-dimensional. The latter had his weakness against the incoming delivery but Jasprit Bumrah, in his first Test as captain, made things predictable for the batsman, with seamers bowling inside the stumps and five fielders on the leg side. Rarely did the bowlers bowl outside the off-stump Test match line in a regular manner. This did not go in favor of the Indian team.
A South African story
Batting was also India’s fault in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. In Cape Town, their weakness against aggressive short pitch bowling was again exposed. Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammed Shami and Bumrah all fell to that type of delivery in the second innings.
Unlike Edgbaston, the matches in South Africa were low-scoring. Still, while the South African batsmen put up decent partnerships, the Indian bowling lost the plot in back-to-back defeats. They suffered from impatience and tried many things. Runs were leaked in the process. “We have to be patient,” Rishabh Pant had told his teammates on the stump mic during the fourth day of play at Edgbaston. The golden rule for India under the former management was to make the opposition batsmen work for their runs.
The instruction was clear. For a batsman to score a century, he must face at least 200 balls. In Cape Town, South Africa chased down 212 to win by seven wickets, with youngster Keegan Pietersen scoring 82 at a strike rate of 72-plus. At Edgbaston, Bairstow scored 106 off 140 balls in the first innings and 114 off 145 balls in the second. In the second innings, Root scored 142 off 173 balls.
And, most importantly, India were without their best batsman, Rohit Sharma, in all three Tests.
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