Granted that it was a challenging pitch. The overhead conditions were loaded in favour of the bowler. To make matters worse, Kohli as usual lost the toss and India had to bat when the pitch was at its best for the bowlers. This is a side that that is supposed to boast a formidable bench strength and yet they played as a bunch of novice. The selection was wrong. Both Jadeja and Ashwin hardly had anything to do. The playing eleven was announced a day before the actual start of the finals. The first day was washed out which gave a golden opportunity to Kohli and Shastri to change the team. A batsman would have served better for one of the spinner.
What about the actual game itself? There was an absolute lack of intent to score runs. Jamieson was made to look like Malcolm Marshall at his fiercest. Rohit and Gill settled nicely but they didn’t go on to play a decisive innings. Pujara did what he does. Play time without scoring. Kohli usually does not perform in ICC knockouts. Rahane for once played well but played stupid shots in both the innings. None of the bowler were able to swing the ball. The only one who could, Siraj, was left out for 2 under utilised spinners. The team itself was flawed.
Lack of practice games before the finals
India reached England on 2 June and were in quarantine for a week. Yet, between 9 June and 18 June, no practice games were scheduled. Instead, the team played a intra-squad 3 day game on a flat pitch under sunny sky. This wasn’t ideal preparation before a final. New Zealand on the otherhand, played a couple of tests against England and won the series. That boosted their confidence manifold. Kohli and Shastri are famous for not wanting one or multiple practise games before the series. However, experience in Australia shows what practise games before the tour starts can do to the players.
Gill especially is refusing to grow up
He had a great introduction to test cricket in Australia. It is impossible to forget his 91 at Brisbane and that too in the fourth innings which proved decisive in India winning the series. However, runs have dried up after that. The England series was tricky for all the batsmen. He gets starts but is unable to convert them. All that he will have to do is glance at his immediate predecessors, Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw. Prithvi Shaw started his career with a hundred and a 90. Mayank has a couple of double hundreds. Yet, after a couple of failures, they find themselves out of the team. Gill has no such scores to fall back on and yet he is not making use of the opportunities he is being given.
There is no doubt that Gill is outrageously talented but talent alone will not take you higher. It is performance that matters. He will certainly get 5 more tests on this England tour. If he is not able to score a double of hundreds, he may find himself on the bench for quite some time.
Pujara and Rahane, two batsmen who are not contributing
Pujara, as I have argued before, is more content in playing time rather than scoring runs. He did the same in the finals. At one stage, he didn’t get off the mark for 35 deliveries. At the other end, Kohli did his best to move the score along, though he was slow too. However, with strike not being rotated, the New Zealand bowlers were able to bowl at the same spot ball after ball after ball. Jamieson maybe a good bowler but was he unplayable? I do not think so. Pujara did not try to do anything different for the bowlers to make mistakes.
If Pujara was bad, Rahane was horrible. He played a horrendous shot just when everyone thought he will take the score to some respectability. The illusion that Rahane always plays well when the team is in trouble fell flat on that day. Recently, a table is being circulated on social media that states Rahane has scored the most number of runs in the WTC cycle for India. However, the number of games he played to score those runs is almost twice that of Rohit Sharma.
It has been awhile since Pujara and Rahane have been reliable. When one looks at the team sheet and find Pujara and Rahane in the middle, the opposition will surely fancy their chances. One who will take enormous amount of time to score and the other who will just refuse to score. It really is a miracle how Rahane has managed to hold on to his spot despite years of low scores. I hope better sense prevails and he is replaced for the England series. As for Pujara, there is a readymade replacement in Hanuma Vihari but too many changes before an important series will be detrimental for the team’s chances.
The lower order always proves to be the pain on the neck
The perennial problem returned while bowling. More than 50 runs were scored by New Zealand’s 9, 10 & Jack. This problem has been recurring for so long that it is really a surprise that the team management has failed to address this. None of the bowler were on their first trip to England. All of them and especially, Ishant Sharma is experienced enough to understand what line and what length to bowl in England. Ofcourse, it is true that the bowlers cannot be expected to defend 250 everytime but it is a crime not to understand the way to bowl despite multiple tours. In this day and age, with technology, someone who is on his first tour will be able to understand the conditions on an away tour.
India must definitely sort this problem before the England series starts.
Do go onto read the part 2 of this two part article and let me know what do you think.