5 reasons why Indian cricket fans must stop blaming the team for their poor run
Hosts England handed Virat Kohli's men a massive innings and 159 runs defeat at Lord's in the second of the five-match Test series on Sunday. Most of the players in the playing XI failed to put up a decent show in a rain-marred Test match at 'the home of cricket'. Pacer James Anderson, who was the chief tormentor of the Indian side, finished with 9 wickets in the test match. Though the first day was washed out completely due to incessant rain, the match concluded within four days. India, who lost the opening match of the series at Edgbaston, had fans lash out at them following their disappointing show at Lord's.
The social media went into a frenzy questioning India's batting standard, team selection and tactics. The fans started questioning the ability of the players to play in the tough English conditions. Yes, they are the number one ranked test team in the World and they feel that they don't deserve this humiliation. However, blame cannot be kept being shovelled on the same team which registered great victories in the past before their recent defeats.
Let us now see the five reasons why Indian fans should stop blaming the side for their poor outing in England.
#5 Majority of the players failed, but not all:
Though the majority of the Indian batsmen have failed to put up a decent show so far, not all of them have failed in their intent. Captain Virat Kohli waged a lone battle at Edgbaston and almost gifted us a famous win before his dismissal by Ben Stokes (in the second innings) which turned out to be decisive. Our bowlers were on top form throughout the first test- Ishant, Shami and Ashwin rattled the English batting line-up, which was rather unstable due to the poor form of Cook, Jennings and Buttler.
They bundled out England who were poised to score more than 350 for 287 in the first innings before that splendid second innings show when they toppled England for just 187. Hardik Pandya, too, was determined to win the Test for India at Edgbaston but couldn't guide the team home in spite of his valiant stay at the crease till the end. In the second test at Lord's when almost everyone failed, Ravichandran Ashwin stepped up- this time with the bat as he registered a top score for India with 29 and 33*. Though Shami and Pandya were good with the ball (three wickets each), that wasn't enough to restrict the English who posted 396-7 (declared). Two or three players performing well alone is not sufficient to seal a test match. Unless everyone steps up it will be difficult to claim a win.