Different series but same issue- India's worries with opposition tail
This is not a new story. How many times we have seen India getting the top-6 batsmen of the opposition out with less than 120 or 130 odd runs on the board and then end up conceding 300 something in the end. This trend has been common now especially in away series and that results in India throwing the match into the opposition's basket. Indian bowlers have been struggling to get the tail out cheaply even after beautifully bowling out the strong top order.
The most recent example to back my point was the 1st Test of the ongoing India vs England series in Birmingham, which India lost with a narrow margin of 31 runs. The difference between the win and the loss was the Indian bowler's inability to get the young Sam Curran out cheaply in the 2nd innings. The Northampton born, 20 years old Curran showed some good temperament and skills to take England to a respectable total of 180 after England's top order collapsed to 87/7. He battled it out with the tail and scored an impressive 63 runs which in the end proved costly for India.
This has happened in the past as well. A very good example which comes to my mind is the series Down Under in 2014. In the 2nd Test at Gabba, India posted a good 1st innings score of 408, thanks to the hard-earned century from Murali Vijay. Indian bowlers did a very impressive job by restricting Australia's top order to 247/6. Just when everyone thought that India will end up taking a decent 1st innings lead, a Mitchell Johnson nightmare occured. He came out to bat at 8 and threw the Indian bowlers apart with a quickfire 88 off 93 deliveries. Also, the number 9, Mitchell Starc scored 52 off 59 deliveries and the Kangaroos ended up taking a lead of 97 runs and won the match by 4 wickets.
If you compare the performance of the 2 teams in the ongoing India England series, you will notice that India has outperformed their counterparts in almost all the fields of cricket like slip catching, bowling, batting, fielding etc. The only reason England is leading the series is because of the impressive show of their lower middle order and tail enders. They have exploited the weakness of Indian bowlers very impressively.
Kohli and the team have to take cognizance of the situation and have to find some way out to bowl the opposition tail out cheaply if they want to win series, specially abroad. As soon as the tail enders start hitting the Indian bowlers, they come on the back foot and try different things which ultimately leads to more smashing. Instead of trying different things they should stick to the basics and bowl a good line and length. They keep on trying too much and end up leaking runs and by the time they realize their mistakes, the match is already out of their grasp.
India has to realize that if they want to win big outside home soil and want to be the best, they have to work really hard on this issue which has been lingering around for quite a while now.