This series was billed as a payback opportunity for their three successive series losses to England in the last five years. The in-form Indian team admirably dealt with the enormous pressure accompanying them and produced a commanding performance to clinch the series 4-0.
It all began with a rather unconvincing draw on a drab surface in Rajkot. Since then, Virat Kohli’s troops surged to four consecutive victories with all of them coming by massive margins.
Aside from the dominant score line, there have been plenty of other gains for India from this series.
#5 Lower-order grows from strength to strength
The spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had been lending significant balance to India’s lower-order over the last few seasons. When it looked like it could not get any better, Jayant Yadav has emerged from the shadows to add enormous depth to the batting lineup.
Replacing Amit Mishra, who had toiled hard on a flat surface in Rajkot, the off-spinner shone in all three departments of the game in the next three matches. A sharp run-out was sandwiched between two handy knocks and some productive spells. Jayant well and truly announced himself in the Mumbai Test when he followed up his maiden century with the key wicket of Joe Root.
#4 Intense competition for places
When the home season began, Rohit Sharma was the only reserve middle-order batsman in the squad with Kohli often preferring five bowling options. More than halfway into it, India now have a problem of plenty with Karun Nair’s rise resulting in an engrossing competition for batting spots.
The 25-year old was drafted into the playing eleven when Ajinkya Rahane suffered a finger injury ahead of the fourth Test. He promptly grabbed his chance and smashed an unbeaten 381-ball 303 in the final match of the series. With India playing a one-off Test against Bangladesh in February before the Aussies arrive for a 4-match series, coach Anil Kumble and the team management have a positive dilemma on their hands.
#3 Seamers out bowl their England counterparts
Towards the end of the series, former England captain Nasser Hussain repeatedly pointed out that India’s seamers were outperforming their visiting counterparts. Even though Alastair Cook's team possessed the more experienced and accomplished fast bowlers, they were unable to pose any considerable threat.
Despite playing only three games, Mohammed Shami picked up more wickets than any England bowler apart from Adil Rashid. Umesh Yadav roughened up the opposition batsmen with his raw pace while the likes of Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar played their parts as well. The development of a pack of reliable seam bowlers should augur well for Kohli's team when they begin their next round of overseas tours.
#2 Captain Kohli leads India’s charge
Right from the moment he lifted the U-19 World Cup in 2008, Kohli has always been earmarked for greatness. After carving a niche for himself in the limited-overs formats, he took over the Test captaincy from MS Dhoni when the team was low in confidence following a round of difficult away tours. Despite scoring a double century each in the previous two series, it felt like we had not quite seen the best of him.
Kohli came into his own during this series with 655 runs from the 5 matches at an astounding average of 109.16 including a career-best score of 235. For the first time in his career, his Test average has trickled over the 50-mark. More importantly, the control with which he paced his innings seems to suggest that this series could possibly be the watershed moment for the star batsman.
#1 Don’t need turning tracks anymore
Despite India winning Test series in Sri Lanka and West Indies recently, their status as the top-ranked team in the world was often linked with spin-friendly pitches at home. Adding to the noise was the fact that they had won all three tosses during their 3-0 triumph against New Zealand.
Both of those theories were laid to rest through their emphatic 4-0 conquest on pitches which did not offer much to the spinners. England won four tosses in this series and managed to put up 400-plus first-innings totals in three of those games. However, India absorbed scoreboard pressure relentlessly to respond with even bigger totals which ultimately propelled them towards victory.
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