3 areas of concern for England from the Test series against India
Although England harboured hopes of replicating their 2012/13 heroics under Alastair Cook after winning the 1st Test by a big margin, they crumbled in the remaining matches to lose the series against India 3-1.
With their loss in the 3rd Test, Joe Root's men were knocked out of contention for the final of the World Test Championship. Although England held on to the #4 spot in the ICC Test Rankings, they'll be highly disappointed with their performance after drawing first blood in the series.
Here are 3 areas of concern that England need to address ahead of their upcoming home assignments against New Zealand and India.
#3 Reading of the conditions and team selection
England's team for the 1st Test wore a fairly balanced look, with two solid pacers and two frontline spinners adding great variety and depth to the XI. But the following three games saw the visitors get their team selection wrong after completely misreading the conditions on offer.
Moeen Ali replaced Dom Bess for the 2nd Test on a rank turner in Chennai, despite the latter having taken 4 wickets in one of the innings of the 1st Test. Ali was one of England's best performers in the Test, but he left for home shortly after and Bess' confidence never recovered.
The pink-ball Test saw England play three pacers and one spinner although the track at the Narendra Modi Stadium wore a distinctly brown look, and captain Joe Root was forced to take up the role of a frontline bowler. And in the fourth and final Test, Root and the team management made the opposite error, fielding only one specialist pacer in Jimmy Anderson.
England's reading of the pitches - and consequently team selection - in India was shambolic, and they lost the series by a 3-1 margin even though they won three of the four tosses.
#2 Top order
England's top order impressed in flashes during the 4-Test series.
Dom Sibley followed up his fifty in Sri Lanka with an encouraging knock in the 1st Test, while Zak Crawley notched up a stroke-filled fifty in the pink-ball Test. Dan Lawrence, who was at No. 3 in the first two Tests, was England's best batsman in the final Test while batting in the lower-middle order.
However, none of Sibley, Crawley, Lawrence and Rory Burns scored more than one fifty in the series. And surprisingly, they lost their wickets to both spin and pace.
England have some serious thinking to do regarding the top three positions in their batting lineup.
#1 Rotation policy
The biggest talking point surrounding England in the recent past has been their rotation policy.
Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali, two players who would've been massive threats in Indian conditions, played only one Test each in the series. Sam Curran and Chris Woakes, bowling all-rounders who would've added depth to the batting lineup, didn't feature in the few games they were part of the squad.
Rory Burns was clearly not in touch in the first two Tests after sitting out the Sri Lanka series, while Ben Stokes suffered a similar plight and was all at sea against spin. Even the pacers - Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson, Olly Stone and Jofra Archer - were rotated. Only Anderson was able to make a lasting impression as Stone was dropped after picking up 3 wickets in the first innings of the 2nd Test.
England's decision to rotate their best players is a praiseworthy, courageous idea. The idea is solid - keep the stars fresh in this era of bio-bubbles and congested calendars. But the implementation of the rotation policy in a series that had a massive say on the outcome of the World Test Championship was abysmal.
England need to find a way to tweak their rotation policy and ensure that the playing XIs they put out are not drastically weakened by the absence of a number of high-profile cricketers.