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Opinion
British Prime Minster Harold Wilson once said: “A week is a long time in politics.” Joe Root and Virat Kohli must be thinking a fortnight is a long time in Test cricket.
On the 17th of August, Virat and his boys were rightly ecstatic, having rolled England in under two sessions to take the second Test by more than 150 runs. Flash forward 11 days, and the same Indian team has gone down, inside four days, by an innings. To use another colloquial expression, go figure!
Here are a few of my takeaways from this match.
KL Rahul fell for the three-card trick
Up until this first innings, KL Rahul had done a very good job opening the batting in mostly very difficult conditions. He’s already scored 84 and an excellent century, highlighted by some terrific cover drives, his signature shot.
His eyes must have lit up when he saw a lovely delivery, perfect for playing that shot, four balls into his innings. The problem was, he didn’t hit it for runs, but edged it and his dismissal started the first innings rot.
Hopefully he learns from that and plays within himself next match, at least until he’s well set.
Pujara’s played his last Test this series
That must seem a harsh call, given his top score in India’s second innings, but I think he was good enough to cash in on some untidy England bowling.
The England attack bowled far too straight to both he and an out of form Kohli on the third day and both are too classy to miss out on free runs on the leg side, even if they’re out of form. Once the bowlers got the new ball in their hands on day 4, they also got the radar right and we saw the end result.
The leave that cost Pujara his wicket was simply poor judgement. Just as Rahul’s good form caused his downfall in the first innings, Pujara’s lack of understanding of where his stumps were cost his wicket in the second and arguably India the Test match.
The Indian captaincy dilemma
When Virat Kohli’s on song with the bat, his captaincy is full of life and his team plays extra well from the energy he exudes.
Right now, he’s down on form with the bat and is letting England get into his head. As a consequence, India are playing competitive cricket but not the sort of dominating cricket we’ve seen when the skipper’s at the top of his game. So, what’s to be done?
India cannot afford to drop their best batsman, even if he’s struggling. To a team that rides on emotion, that would be akin to a national disaster.
On the other hand, Pujara, Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant are all failing pretty badly in the series so far. Changes would need to be made but Kohli has to stay.
Rahane did an outstanding job as skipper in Australia but is not making runs. Should he also go, when he could stay and shoulder some of the on-field captaincy role?
A cynical solution is an ‘injury’ that allows Kohli time away from the game, giving Rahane the captaincy and bringing spark back into the team. Failing that, India needs their skipper to find form with the bat quickly.
Is Virat Kohli’s captaincy under threat? (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Rishabh Pant needs to stop playing T20 cricket in Tests
There’s no doubt Pant has as much talent as anyone in world cricket when it comes to batting but his mindset and judgment about how to play a Test innings is appalling.
Here’s a No.6 batsman who came to the crease with his team four down and in serious trouble. So, what did he do? He batted seven deliveries, watched as another batsman departed, skipped down the pitch to fast bowlers twice, then hung his bat out to be comfortably caught in the slips. That is simply irresponsible batting.
I’d give him another chance, simply because he’s so talented, but Ravi Shastri or someone needs to tell him to pull his head in until he’s well set or the state of the game means attacking from ball one is warranted.
Have England found their top three?
The selectors did the England squad a favour and brought in two players who are in form. Granted, Haseeb Hameed had an ordinary Test at Lord’s, but he looked very assured at Headingley, as did Dawid Malan at No.3.
Their positive intent rubbed off onto Rory Burns with the end result being a century opening stand, a big first innings lead and a terrific victory.
I’m guessing this will be the England batting order for the last two Tests and their performances could well decide this series.
Is Jos Buttler England’s best choice as keeper?
On the surface of it, this seems like a strange question. After all, England just won a Test by an innings and Buttler snared eight catches. In reality, this is a player in very average form.
In the five innings he’s played, Buttler’s made 72 runs at 14.40, which gives England a very long tail, if he’s batting at 6. His glovework has also been no better than average when standing up to the stumps which didn’t cost England in this game, but could in the future. He’s one of two changes I think England needs to make.
Sorry, Sam Curran, you’re not quite good enough just yet – he’s the other change England need to make. I’m assuming he was brought into the team for two reasons; one was to bolster the lower order batting and two was to provide some variety with the ball.
To date, he’s failed with the bat, making 74 runs at 18.5 and has been equally underwhelming with the ball, taking 3 wickets at 79.30.
If Mark Wood’s fit, he’d be my choice to come into the team while Curran can work on trying to gain an extra yard or two in pace as well as sorting out his line.
Ollie Robinson is too good to go the yap
Just as Joe Root is in the form of his life with the bat, he’s just about matched by Robinson’s form with the ball.
(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
In this series, he’s taken 16 wickets at an average of 19.06 and a strike rate of 43.80. That makes it all the harder for me to understand why he’d want to chirp a batsman he just dismissed.
In the second innings, he dismissed Rishabh Pant caught in the slips, then proceeded to run across the pitch, while looking straight at the batsman and having a few things to say.
Perhaps he was suggesting Pant should work on his batting, which would be sound advice, but I rather suspect it was not words of encouragement, given some of the exchanges that came from the Lord’s Test.
Robinson is the find of the summer with the ball and he’s clearly England’s best bowler. He doesn’t need to chirp Indian batsmen, just let the ball do the talking for him.
Are home umpires a good thing?
The response to COVID has meant the ICC sensibly decided to stop using neutral umpires and allow home umpires for Tests, with an extra review allowed, to offset any suggestion of bias.
I think this is an approach that should continue, but the ICC would need to publish some numbers about whether there is an unconscious bias, especially when it comes to close calls.
Case in point was this Test where I thought Rohit Sharma was very unlucky to be given out LBW in the second innings. Granted, the ball would have grazed the stumps, so the decision was correct, but an umpire needs to be 100 per cent sure a batsman’s out before making this call and that margin was way too close to call it a certainty.
In similar vein, there were more than a few decisions that were overturned where batsmen were given out and the ball was either clearly missing the stumps or missing the edge of the bat.
Maybe it was just one of those games, where close calls went to the home team or where the review system worked as it should to eliminate the howlers. I want home umpires to control Tests but not if bias, unconscious or otherwise is going to become a factor.
Is this a series about momentum?
I just don’t get a sense where this series is going. India were in front by a nose in the drawn first Test and clearly superior after Lord’s, but does England’s impressive victory at Leeds mean they’re now in control of the series?
England are now 7/4 to win the series, while India is 9/4 and a drawn series is 7/2. I think India is a very tempting price, given the quality of players they have, while a two-all drawn series wouldn’t be a surprise, either.
Two positives to finish up: I’ve watched that catch by Jonny Bairstow to dismiss KL Rahul probably a dozen times and could happily watch it a dozen more. It’s as good a catch as I’ve seen an English player take in a lot of years.
Congratulations to Joe Root for passing Michael Vaughan as the England captain with the most Test victories (27). That he made a hundred and his team won so comprehensively after the result at Lord’s, must make the win all the sweeter.
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