England vs India 2018: 5 Reasons why India lost the Test series
With the England vs India in the books, it is time for Team India to reflect on the series. The 4-1 loss must surely be stinging the team, considering how closely fought the series really was. The scoreline really does not do justice to the quality of cricket that the Indians played throughout the series.
But certain mistakes proved to be their downfall. It is hard to say what could have happened if the team had not made these mistakes. The scoreline might even have been 4-1 in the favour of Team India.
So, on that note, let's take a look at the 5 reasons because of which India lost the Test series to England.
#5. Failure of the openers
Both Dhawan and Rahul will be criticised after this series and rightfully so. Both the openers failed to put on meaningful runs until the very last innings of the series when Rahul played an epic knock of 149. Dhawan, on the other hand, carried on with his disastrous form and scored 1.
India came to England with 3 openers in the squad in the form of Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Murali Vijay. All three men had terrible starts to the series and Vijay was even sent home after three Tests. The 18-year-old Prithvi Shaw was called up to the squad in his place but was surprisingly not given a chance to play.
India decided to carry on with the Dhawan and Rahul pairing despite their struggles throughout the tour and it might have ended up costing them the series. Now, opening will be a huge concern for the Indian team management considering the World Cup will be played in England next year and till now nobody has shown themselves to be capable of playing on English soil.