The second test between India and England was a good advertisement for test cricket. Yes, it wasn’t always played in the right spirit but the quality of the game was good. It has some great individual performances as well as some performances that do not deserve any merit. In the end, yes India won but there are questions to be answered.
Pujara and Rahane does not deserve an extended run
Yes India won but the weakness of which there are several is likely to be not addressed atleast until the end of the series. The known non-performers like Pujara & Rahane, are still short of runs. Fortunately for Rahane and unfortunately for the rest, Rahane scored a crucial 65 in the second innings. Though it was a slow and laborious innings, it helped the team to reach a respectable score before he was out. Supporters of Rahane will now come out and utter the same nonsense all over again. That Rahane always contributes when the team is in trouble. He is unlikely to be replaced this series unless he is injured.
Pujara on the otherhand, was back to his best in that having played more than 200 deliveries, he was able to score only 46. Supporters of both Pujara and Rahane must realise that both of them created lot of pressure and by the time they got out, India did not progress that far. The score remained within the grasp of England.
The team management will do well to replace one of Pujara and Rahane with Mayank or Vihari or Surya. Kohli’s prolonged inability to score runs, is also proving to be a headache. The fact that India won the game must not hide the obvious weakness.
The team selection was also faulty. The batting was completely weakened with the inclusion of Ishant for Shardul. In the absence of Shardul, Ashwin would have been the obvious replacement. Both for his batting ability and his bowling.
Lower order batting
India must remember that they got out of jail because of some extraordinary lower order hitting and a generous and liberal English bowling. Geoffrey Boycott had that much to say about the English bowling.
“This Test match has proved two things. Firstly, if you are stupid you do not deserve to win Test matches.”
The English bowlers instead of aiming for the stumps were aiming everywhere else. They ran out of ideas quite quickly. If a Mark Wood had stumbled upon stupidity, it was understandable. Moreover, he has pace which will unsettle any batter leave alone a tailender but to see the most experienced bowler in international cricket, James Anderson, losing the plot, it was a surprise.
Joe Root at his best but captaincy-wise not so
Joe Root was at his majestic best. He is having a dream run off late. Extremely successful in Sri Lanka and a good outing in India following by couple of hundreds in England. He remains an asset for England. However, his captaincy leaves a lot to be desired. This was his 54th test as captain. If he was carried away by the verbal and as a result got his tactics wrong, it raises serious questions about his ability to think clearly.
I have always said this. Joe Root is not captaincy material. He lost a major part of his career where his runs could have saved England multiple times because of captaincy. Root the batsman is much more essential for England than Root the captain.
Boycott said, “ Joe Root’s century took England to a winning position, but we lost the match because of his bad captaincy.”
Looking forward to the next test
Kohli and Shastri will do well to reflect on the balance of the team. Headingley where the next test is to be played, is known to assist the seamers during the first couple of days. Siraj, Shami & Bumrah are mandatory. However, I will replace Ishant with Shardul to add a bit of batting to the lower order. Remember, Shardul has been quite successful so far in international cricket. He deserves a longer run.
Let us hope that the rest of the series will be played in good spirit. Anderson and Kohli we know are perhaps not good when it comes to on-field behaviour. It is heartening to see Kohli standby his teammates when they were cornered but let us hope that better sense prevails.