Excuses for loss: Luck and weather
Chief coach Ravi Shastri doesn’t think batting failure only reason for defeat in England
MUMBAI: India may have lost six of their eight away Test matches this year, but head coach Ravi Shastri says Virat Kohli’s team remains the best on the road, and there is not a single area of concern as far as the team and staff management is concerned.
Experts, however, are not convinced with Shastri’s defence. The fact remains, this was among the weakest England teams, which was struggling in batting and was led by an ageing pace attack.
Lack of adequate preparation at the start of the series cost India a strong start. Add to that, there were questionable selections and strange field placements by Virat, which resulted in the team losing momentum at crucial junctures.
Shastri, however, remained combative despite the 1-4 defeat, which was more humiliating than their 1-3 loss in 2014. What is worrisome is the fact that none of India’s batsmen, barring Virat Kohli, attained any sort of consistency and the bowling unit was a face-saver at times.
Until the final Test, none of India’s openers could cross the 50-run mark. KL Rahul put an end to the misery at The Oval with 149, but the series was lost and the world’s best side was desperate to make a statement.
India’s lack of match practice too remained a concern. While those who played in the limitedovers series earlier were acclimatised, Test specialists such as Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma got only a truncated tour match to prepare.
The same issue had hounded India in South Africa when they cancelled the only tour match before entering the Test series. However, moving ahead, Shastri says the BCCI has been asked to arrange at least two warm-up matches before India face a depleted Australia later this year.
“Yes, already done that. But is there space (to play those matches), that is the question,” Shastri told ESPNCricinfo.
“I have already told you before the series; tell me one team in the world at the moment that goes out and competes all the time.
“We are the one team. It is just that we need results coming in our favour more often on the winning side,” he said.
While the fast bowlers did everything to keep India in contention, it was the batsmen who let them down consistently. But Shastri compared the visitors’ losses with England’s consistent failures in India.
“As far as batting goes, it was tough for both sides. When the ball moves around so much and seams, I don’t care who the batsman is, it is going to be tough. You need your share of luck.
“And when you weigh the factors — every time India batted it had to be cloudy, every time England batted the sun was out. But that is not an excuse. I’m just saying very clearly that the moving Dukes ball will test anybody,” he said.
Along with the openers’ woes, India had only one centurion apart from Virat to show in the middle order — Cheteshwar Pujara’s unbeaten 132 in a lost cause at Southampton — and none of their experiments worked as well as it did for England, who picked Sam Curran.
The ‘Man of the Series’ for England, Curran hurt India thrice at crucial junctures, so much so that it cost them the series.
“In the first Test at Edgbaston, England were 87 for 7 in the second innings when he got the runs. In the fourth Test at Southampton, they were 86 for 6 in the first innings and again he came to the rescue.
“We were 50 for 0 (in the first innings) at Edgbaston, he got the wickets. So, at crucial stages in this series he chipped in with runs and wickets. That was the difference between the two sides,” Shastri pointed out.
BLUNDERS APLENTY
It took some harsh criticism from West Indian great Michael Holding to bring out the best in Hardik Pandya (5/28), but picking Kuldeep Yadav at a fastbowler’s paradise at Lord’s and a half-fit R. Ashwin for the fourth Test proved to be India’s biggest mistakes.
In his defence, Shastri turned to blaming nature.
“We did not expect it to rain as much as it did. You do take the weather forecast into account, but you pick a team still. Whether it will rain, how much it will (rain)… whether the sun will come out is not in your hands,” he said.
Amid the gloom, what was heartening for India was their ability to take difficult catches, which made the coach proud.
“I thought the other positive, in addition to the (fast) bowling, we improved massively with our catching,” he said.