India’s abject surrender in England is inexcusable
Our batsmen have neither displayed the application nor the patience to score runs
In fewer than six days of play, India’s English summer is over. This Test series, 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 the batting unit comprised Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan. The protagonists remain largely the same. But 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 R 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. The willingness to graft, to judiciously select shots 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 this batting side played to the performances we saw in similar conditions from the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly. It was not merely a question of talent (it is no one’s case that this team is not talented); it is a question of intent.
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 in 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.