India vs England and why the better team won

By winning the fourth Test match against England in Mumbai India have won the series three-nil with one match to spare.

Interestingly, when played in England the series is known as the Pataudi Trophy, and when played in India it’s called the Anthony De Mello Trophy.

It was a super clinical performance by India. Let’s look at how the two teams fared.

Too often the toss is given huge credit for wins in India. Yes, the toss is crucial, but more important is utilising it. It is highly creditable that India won the series despite losing three tosses.

In the first Test England amassed 537 runs but India batted well for commendable draw. Two of the three Test wins were after losing the toss. The performance at Wankhede in Mumbai was highly creditable as England had put up 400, which is a huge first-innings score for the venue.

As a team India batted better than England did. The stark difference of course was Virat Kohli, who led from the front, especially at Mumbai, where he conjured up a genius 235 on a difficult track to get his side a 231-run lead.

At Vizag, too, he scored a century from 22/2, and in the second innings on a dreadful track he got 81.

Kohli already has 640 runs in the series so far. Cheteshwar Pujara is now settled at three, while Murali Vijay and KL Rahul have shown they can be a settled opening pair.

The patience to bat long has been a highlight of Indian batting in this series. Both at Rajkot and at Mumbai they played for a long time, which always helps in Test cricket. At Rajkot batting for 160 overs helped them get a creditable draw. At Mumbai they outdid that and went on to post 631.

India’s lower order has performed creditably. Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha have chipped in with important knocks.

Parthiv Patel stepped up as an opener and did well. Jayant Yadav scored a century at from ninth in the order at Mumbai, and earlier in the series he had critically important knocks as well.

In contrast England’s top order batted reasonably, but the lower end didn’t – though even at the top they did not function well as a team, except in the first Test, which helped India win three out of four Tests.

The silver lining for England is that they now suddenly they have an opening partnership after struggling for three years without one – both Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings impressed.

However, England lack an effective number four – probably Joe Root can now go back to four following from Alastair Cook, Hameed and Jennings at the top three In fact Ben Duckett is also promising and should be retained for the future.

For India Ajinkya Rahane’s injury may actually help the Mumbai batsman as he had a couple of low scores in this series. Now he can come back for the series against Australia and score big. He is too valuable for the Indian team to miss, and he has shone in adverse circumstances abroad. It is only a matter of time before he shines in India as well.

The bonus batting gain for India has been their three spinners – Ashwin, Jadeja and Yadav – who performed creditably as batsman. Ashwin shows assurance and provides comfort. Jadeja is consistently getting 30s and 40s. Jayant is of course batting like a proper top-order batsman. Apparently he bats at four or five for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy, which shows in his composure and confidence.

One thing India needs to think about for the future, is a third opener. Parthiv did the job superbly here, but he may not be able to do so overseas. However, there is time. Let us see what the five wise men think about this issue.

In terms of captaincy, here too Kohli is ahead. Cook had a chance in the first Test, but he gave India a too difficult task of scoring 310 runs in 53 overs. Probably a target of 270 or so in 65 overs should have been given.

Who knows – an attacking Kohli could have taken up the challenge and England could have gone one-nil up. That potentially would have changed the course of the series. Cook may have missed the bus there.

As for bowling, Ashwin has once again shown himself as India’s leading bowler. He now has 247 wickets in 43 Tests and is on the way to break Dennis Lillee’s record for the fastest to 250 in 48 Tests.

Indian great Kapil Dev and Bishen Singh Bedi had 25-plus wickets in a series four times and three times respectively, and now Ashwin too has achieved it four times.

With Jadeja as second spinner and Jayant as the third, the spin attack seems secure. The pace attack, too, seems settled with Shami, Yadav, Bhuvneswar Kumar and Ishant Sharma available.

Thinking abroad, Jadeja has been criticised as being ineffective, so maybe he will make way for a third quick for overseas, especially as Jayant with his solid batting will be helpful in all conditions. Or maybe India would like to go in for an extra batsman abroad. Time will tell.

English bowling was severely hampered by a lack of an authentic spinner. Moeen Ali was supposed to be their number one spinner, but his lack of effectiveness hurt England badly.

They also seemed to have selected poorly for Mumbai by going in with four quicks. A bowler of Chris Woakes’s calibre bowling his ninth over when the team had bowled 170 shows how badly this selection had gone wrong. Jonathan Trott, Alastair Cook and Joe Root to their credit admitted this was a mistake. Jimmy Andersen getting four wickets in three Tests shows how ineffective the English bowlers were.

The better team overall won. India has now won five consecutive series in a row. Congratulations to them.