INDIA’S FAB 4 OUT OF LUCK
They could have won this series if batsmen matched bowlers’ skill
THE sight of India’s Mohammed Shami repeatedly beating the bat on the third evening at the Oval was a poignant reminder that the margin between success and failure can sometimes be as thin as the outside edge.
It will be of little consolation to Virat Kohli’s team as they contemplate another Test series defeat in England — their 14th in 18 visits — but had a little more luck gone their way, had their batsmen matched the skill of their bowlers, they might now be celebrating a famous victory.
Instead, England will be looking to completee a 4-1 win that barely tells thee story of a hard-fought serieseries in which the lateorder teos batting of Jos Buttler and Samm Curran has often proved the decisive factor.
That, though, should take nothing away from the consistent excellence of India’ss seamers, describedd by coach Ravi Shastristri as the best groupp his country has ever fielded.ielded. Even accountinging forfor Shastri’s penchant for hyperbole, he’s probably right.
Shami has been nagging and skiddy throughout, lining up the left- handers from round the wicket and barely bowling a bad ball. The delivery which trimmed Keaton Jennings’s bails was the product of a smart mind, Shami going so wide of the crease he persuaded Jennings to shoulder arms.
The stats say that his 15 wickets in this series have cost 35 — higher than any seamer on either side. But the stats are a travesty. So often did Shami go past the outside edge on the first afternoon of this game, when Alastair Cook and Moeen Ali were defending for dear life, that he practically gave up on the wry smile and simply trudged back to his mark.
Ishant Sharma has also examined the left-handers’ techniques from round the wicket, but has offered bounce too, and will go home with the memory of three big scalps in a single over either side of lunch in the first Test at Edgbaston — Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Buttler. His 18 wickets have cost just 23.
Then there’s Jasprit Bumrah, he of the ramrodstraight arm and the wicked change of tack. The ball with which he trapped Jennings leg-before for a duck on the first morning at Southampton was arguably the ball of the summer.
Bumrah made his name as a lethal death bowler in whiteball cricket, having honed his yorker as a young boy by aiming for the skirting boards at home, rather than the noisier floor, so as not to wake his mother from her lunchtime nap. He has 14 wickets at 21.
Hardik Pandya was dropped for this Test, but not before his pacy swing had produced a cheap five- for at Trent Bridge, the game India won.
India have often arrived armed with one world- class seamer, perhaps two: Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan. Spin bowling has traditionally been the language they speak most fluently. But there have been times during this series when they have outbowled England.
Their great regret will be that, with the occasional exception of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, no one has come close to matching the example set by Kohli. Only at Trent Bridge have they passed 300 — for a side with ambitions to be India’s best ever away from home, that is a statistic to give them pause for thought. Their bowlers must be wishing the batsmen had kept up their side of the bargain.