England vs India 2018: Does the first Test hints at a repeat of 2011?

By the end of the second day of the long Test series, we had witnessed what every Indian cricket fan dreaded before the start of the "long English summer". The Indian batsmen struggling against swing and seam. Call it the lack of technique against the moving ball or lack of application, but it is a well-known fact that the current Indian batting line up is prone to seaming tracks and swinging conditions. This is the major reason behind their awful overseas record in recent times.

274 in the first innings against a good bowling attack in conditions that assisted the seam bowlers doesn't look that bad, also taking into consideration how well the English bowlers bowled and the fact that even the English batsmen struggled, it seems alright. But had it not been for Virat Kohli's incredible innings and some ordinary catching from the English fielders, Dawid Malan in particular (dropping Kohli twice), the Indian team may well have bundled out under 150.

Rather it was the Indian skipper, showing unforeseen grit and composure and with a bit of luck by his side, who played one of his best Test knocks to bring India back into the contest. Wickets kept falling at one end but it didn't stop the Indian skipper, who went on to score 149 runs in the innings and added 92 runs with Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav for the last two wickets.

We hoped for a better showing in the next innings, expecting the batsmen to bounce back and show some application after watching the captain grind it out in the middle. But sadly, the misery continued and India failed to chase down the target of 194, with Kohli being the top scorer once again, with a hard-fought 51.

But this didn't seem unusual for some reason. Some people had even predicted the failure of the Indian batting unit. Even the new top-ranked batsman, the Indian skipper, was also under the scanner after a horrible showing during the last visit in 2014. But the Indian captain rose to the occasion in an amazing manner, though his teammates looked clueless against the moving ball.

The story sounds familiar, but when we a see the stat that Kohli actually scored 45.87% of the total runs scored by India(200 out of 436), we can't stop ourselves from thinking of the 2011 series, that saw Rahul Dravid, single-handedly, carry the Indian batting unit on his shoulders. We all remember that series mainly for his heroics.

India's one-man army in the 2011 series

Before talking about that supernatural performance, let us have a look at some numbers:

Runs scored 461 (26.27% of India's 1755)

Balls faced 965(27.83% of India's 3468)

Average of 76.83 with 3 hundreds - no other Indian batsman scored even one.

Before the commencement of that series, there was a lot of anticipation. Namely, the clash between the top two sides in Test cricket, Sachin Tendulkar on the verge of 100 centuries in International cricket and probably his last chance of getting on the Lord's Honors Board.

And was often the case, there was not much talk about "the wall" of Indian cricket, despite his decent outing in the Caribbean, just before the England tour. But after the series, everyone talked about just three things - how badly the then number one Test side got white-washed, how miserably the star-studded Indian batting line-up failed and the surreal performance from the best number 3 India has ever had. He was all over the headlines, applauded by everyone, including the opposition and even the English media.

The scores from Dravid in the series were 103*, 36, 117, 6, 22, 18, 146*, 13. It all started with an unbeaten hundred at the home of cricket, finally getting his name on the Honors Board, after falling short by 5 runs on his debut. It was followed by another wonderful ton at Nottingham, but the lack of able support saw India lose both the games by huge margins.

India had to win the third Test in order to keep the series alive. But worse was yet to come. In the Birmingham Test, Dravid got out to a peach in the first innings and was wrongly given out in the second and India went on to lose this match by the biggest margin in that series, an innings and 242 runs.

The series was done and dusted. Now it was all about pride for the Indian team. But things were only going to go downhill at the Oval.

England went on to score a massive 591/6 in the first innings. India hadn't managed to get to even 300 in the first three Tests and to make matters worse, Gautam Gambhir, the Indian opener, sustained a strong blow to his head while attempting a catch. So Sehwag had to open with a new partner.

And it was Rahul Dravid, who played arguably the best innings of his entire career. Wickets kept falling at the other end, but Dravid seemed to be playing on a different surface altogether, scoring an unbeaten 146 to carry his bat and making sure India get to the 300 mark at least once in the series.

India got bundled out for exactly 300, with Amit Mishra (43) being the second highest scorer and Dravid walked back to a standing ovation from the English crowd. He came out to open the innings again as England had enforced follow-on, however, his stay at the crease ended when he got out to Swann in a controversial manner for just 13.

India went on to lose the match by an innings and 8 runs but this match will always be remembered for Dravid's incredible innings and the fact that he came out to open for his team, after having carried the bat moments earlier, which shows the amount of commitment he had.

And after the first Test this year, there is a sense of fear that we might witness a repeat of the 2011 series with Kohli being the only Indian batsman getting runs.