England vs India 2018: Why did India fail in the Test series?
India lost the fourth Test in Southampton by 60 runs against England to concede a series defeat.
"What went wrong?" The question kept coming up again and again and Captain Virat Kohli, the outstanding performer of this series, kept insisting that the team had fought well. " t's up to the people whether they want to acknowledge that we fought really hard," Kohli said, probably feeling that the criticism facing the team was a bigger challenge right now than facing the rivals (England) on the field.
There's no doubt that Kohli was magical with the bat and hopefully, he will continue to be so for a long time to come, but, it has to be said that there were serious tragic errors along the course of this series. It might be wrong to pin down the errors on the captain himself, even though over the years, he has given the impression that he prefers to take the hard decisions all by himself.
Let's take a look at some of the errors of the Indian Team which have cost them the series:
#1 Opening misery
Murali Vijay, KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan are, no doubt, great players. But, in this series, none of India's three openers scored a single half-century in four tests. Vijay, particularly, was in poor form as he recorded a pair in the 2nd test and was subsequently dropped from the side.
In the third test, when Dhawan and Rahul stitched partnerships of 60 runs apiece in either inning, India was on the winning side. The two conjured starts but failed to capitalize on the same in the whole tournament.
#2 Lower middle-order flops
land's lower middle-order, especially Sam Curran and Chris Woakes, acted as bulwarks when the top order collapsed. Curran, who bats at no. 8, fired 24, 63, 40, 78, and 46 in his 5 innings, thus averaging 50.20 - invaluable runs in a low scoring series. Woakes' 137 at Lord's was game-changing. India had no such luck.
#3 Wicketkeeper-batsmen failed
Batting was supposed to be the strength of India's two wicket-keepers, Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant. Both turned out to be disappointing batsmen. Karthik scored 21 runs in four innings with an Average of 5.25. Pant made 43 in four innings.with an average of 10.75. On the other hand, England's Jonny Bairstow's 70 at Birmingham and Jos Buttler's 69 in the fourth test turned the tide in their team's favour.
#4 Virat Kohli cannot do everything alone
Barring captain Virat Kohli (544 runs, Avg: 68, two tons and three half tons), the batting unit failed miserably. Among the rest, only Pujara (Avg: 42.20) delivered to some degree. The rest showed little attitude and aptitude for a fighting the unfavourable conditions.
#5 Letting the English tail wag
The series has been closer than the result indicates. The first test at Birmingham and the fourth test at Southampton could have gone either way. India had England on the mat (87/7) in the second innings of the first test. But Adil Rashid's catch was dropped by Dhawan off Umesh Yadav, allowing England to bounce back. In the fourth test, India let the hosts out of jail (86/6) and reach a healthy 246 in the first innings.
#6 Strange selections
The solid Cheteswar Pujara was kept out of the first test. In the second test, India played with a leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, despite overcast conditions, ideal for seam bowling. Yadav bowled only 9 overs in the entire match. Such myopic decisions cost the team badly. One only wonders what the result would have been if India had a gritty Pujara in the squad in the low scoring first test match.