In fewer than six days of play, India’s English summer is over. This Test series, so talked up, so eagerly anticipated, is looking like being a rerun of the ghastly tours of 2011 (India lost 0-4) and 2014 (India lost 1-3). That win at Lord’s in 2014 is India’s only Test win in England in the past decade. In that period, India has lost nine Tests – the most among teams to play in England in the past ten years.
In 2014, led by MS Dhoni, the nucleus of a new batting unit comprised Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan. The protagonists remain largely the same. Results show that no lessons have been learned in the past four years. After Kohli’s 149 and 51 in the first Test, the next highest Indian score in the series is Ravichandran Ashwin’s 33 not out in the second innings of the second Test. India was at least competitive in the first Test. In the second, it was annihilated.
The inability to play the swinging ball is one of the problems plaguing India. No amount of preparation has equipped our batsmen to do that. The willingness to graft, to show the resolve to preserve one’s wicket, to allow time to tire out bowlers, to judiciously select shots, to tailor one’s batting approach according to the pitch and the conditions are basic rules of Test batsmanship. In the era of playing three formats, of undue emphasis on the Twenty20 game (India won the T20 series against England), India’s batsmen have relinquished basic principles.
Compare the manner in which the members of this batting side played to the performances we saw in similar conditions from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. It was not merely a question of talent or class (it is no one’s case that this team is not talented); it is a question of intent.
{{/usCountry}}Compare the manner in which the members of this batting side played to the performances we saw in similar conditions from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. It was not merely a question of talent or class (it is no one’s case that this team is not talented); it is a question of intent.
{{/usCountry}}This India team is World Number 1 in Tests. That makes a mockery of the rankings. While no Test team travels well nowadays (England lost 0-4 when it visited India in 2016), it is shocking that the world’s top Test side can be bowled out in consecutive innings, as it was at Lord’s, in 35 and 47 overs. As England’s batsmen showed, application and patience will fetch runs. India showed too little of either. That is as abject as it is inexcusable.