2nd Test beckons

It was a tale of a few hits and a lots of misses for the Indian team in the 1st Test at Headingley. If you had read my previous blog, most of my predictions and expectations have come true and unfortunately much of it wasn't favouring India. I expected Jaiswal, Rahul, Gill, Pant and Jadeja to do the bulk of the scoring but sadly they were literally the only ones scoring. In the 1st inning, only these 5 got into double digits. Out of the 835 runs scored by India in this match across innings, if you remove their scores, then the rest 6 have scored 59 runs. Just to stress, 6 batsman×2 innings=12 innings and just 59 runs. Which is less than 5 runs per batting instance. This is shameful to say the least. We saw two massive collapses and 4 players scoring centuries. Such lop sided batting performance can rarely give you a victory.

And to aggravate the problems even further, India's fielding was shabby and sloppy. A total of eight catches were dropped along with all the misfields. Eight catches included 3 of Duckett, 2 of Brook and 1 of Pope. All of them scored heavily and made India pay dearly.

It's difficult for a team to win when you drop so many catches or have 2 huge batting collapses, even individually. But doing both these things in the same match is almost making sure that you can't win.

Comeback man Karun Nair had a poor return to Test Cricket with two soft dismissals. On both occasions, he tried playing on the up which is fine on such a pitch because it was a good wicket to bat on across 5 days. But he also hit the ball in air to offer relatively easy catches. He was actually looking good in the 2nd inning before giving a return catch to Woakes. Debutant Sai Sudarshan fell into the leg-side trap very easily in the 1st inning. He looked better in the 2nd essay but he needs to start improving now. Although I was in favour of picking Easwaran over Sudarshan, but now that the team has gone ahead with him, he alongwith Nair should be given more chances and we will hope that they repay the faith showed in them.

I have nothing against Sudarshan but I feel performance in a particular format should be rewarded with an opportunity in the same format. Sudarshan has performed exceedingly well in the IPL but playing the longer format is a different challenge. Just to compare the domestic performance of them in first class cricket, Sudarshan has less than 2000 runs at an avg near 36 while Easwaran has more than 7000 runs at an avg of 49. This is a huge difference and which is why Easwaran should have been rewarded for his consistency. Nobody knows how a player will fare at the International level but giving a chance should depend on the performances in a similar format since that is the only measure available.

Moving on from a selection I disagree with to a selection call I agreed with but as the match progressed, was clearly baffled with. Shardul Thakur was given the nod ahead of Nitish Reddy, presumably since he is more bowler than a batsman and he will assist the other 3 pacers. He also brings some amount of batting to the table but unfortunately, he didn't deliver as is expected off him while batting. But throughout the match, the decision to not bowl him enough was really surprising. He was given only 16 overs out of the total 182 overs bowled. He was never allowed to get into a rhythm for a continued spell. It was a poor captaincy/coaching call and if such is the approach, then his place in the eleven needs to be reconsidered.

The bowling attack looked plain, flat, ineffective apart from Bumrah. Bumrah was outstanding in the 1st inning taking another 5-fer inspite of 3 catches being dropped off him, and himself dismissing Brook on duck off a No Ball. But in the 2nd inning, he couldn't be as effective and we saw how helpless the others were. No one looked like taking a wicket. Maybe Siraj came near a few times but you expect much more from Siraj. He has been with the team for more than 4 years now, and should be taking more responsibility. Prasidh couldn't adapt and understand what lengths to bowl. And when the length was decent, he erred in line. I believe Prasidh has the ability, but needs immense application. I hope Siraj and Prasidh will work on the flaws before the 2nd test begins and show that India need not heavily rely on Bumrah.

One might feel that England played exceptional cricket, but in reality they were in a losing position for nearly 3-4 times throughout the match, but India's failure to grab those opportunities aided England in emerging victorious. They were helped by lots of poor batting and fielding by the opponent. When Stokes is the best bowler of the match from England, it shows that the others aren't as penetrative. Carse and Tongue had a couple of good spells, but were largely inconsistent. So was Bashir.

There are 2 big positives though for the home side. First being that they won the match without much contribution from currently the best Test batsman in Root. Everyone from Duckett(No 1) to Carse(No 9) contributed and never allowed India to take 2 quick wickets. There was a partnership after every wicket. This was the primary difference in the batting performance of the 2 teams. Second positive being the possible inclusion of Jofra Archer for the 2nd test. With his pace and bounce, he is well capable to troubles the Indian batters. He is already added to the squad, so it's likely that he will play. He will probably replace Tongue. But other than that, I don't think any changes are needed.

Now coming back to India, there are a lot of questions. First being who will replace Bumrah. The options are Arshdeep and Akash Deep. Harshit Rana has been released. Arshdeep and Akash Deep both are good bowlers. There isn't much sample to declare Akash Deep as the clear front runner. Both can swing and seam the ball so it will be a difficult call to make. If Shardul isn't going to bowl much, then maybe the team can go with Nitish Reddy. Reddy can bowl a bit, which Shardul did and can definitely bat better. Other change that I might advocate is to swap Jadeja with Kuldeep. Jadeja has experience but in these conditions, he can only be a containing option but not a wicket taking option. This England batting cannot be contained unless wickets are taken. A bowler can do well to contain, but these batters attack the other bowlers and run scoring isn't affected as much. Kuldeep might be expensive but he will create lot more chances as against to Jadeja. Especially with the aggressive approach, Kuldeep can use his guile and skill to great effect.

In the preview, I had said that advantage lies with England. The opinion stays the same after witnessing the opening Test. The conditions in Birmingham are not expected to differ much from what we saw in Headingley. It will be cold and breezy. The pitch will be on the flatter side. And England will look to take further lead. It will be interesting to see how India tackles this combination and whether they can come up with a better plan, attitude and composure.