England v India 2014: 5 reasons why India have been woeful

Embarrassed, humiliated, dismal, abysmal, horrible -some of the words to describe the performance of the Indian teamwhose confidence wassky high after the fabulous winat Lords, where they gave the home team a taste of their own medicine.Let's take a look at the 5 key points on why India haven't been able to build on the famous Lords win. Will they survive at the Oval, or will England go on to complete their third successive Test series win against India?

#1 Ishant Sharma\'s Injury

This, without an iota of doubt, was a hammer blow. The 25-year-old bowled magnificently in the second Test, constantly peppering the English batsmen with the short ball, to bring his team back into the match and eventually win it, as well.

Subject to a lot of criticism prior to India kicking off on a series of overseas tours for his inconsistent performances, despite being given an unusually extended rope by the team management and the national selectors, the lanky pacer from Delhi silenced all his naysayers by ending the New Zealand series as the highest wicket-taker: 15 wickets.

He also had his moments in the South African tour preceding the Kiwi series, picking up 4 wickets – the likes of Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis included – in the first innings of the first Test, at Johannesburg, to put his team in the driver’s seat, which they were unable to capitalise on.

#2 Substandard fielding

During the ‘fab five’ era, India were known for setting high standards for fielding at the close-in positions, especially at the slips. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were amongst the world’s best when it came to plucking out sharp catches, both to spinners and pacers, while Anil Kumble was as good as any fielder you could see at the gully position.

Stats say that the current crop of Indian fielders have dropped around 8 catches, which has cost them a massive 237 runs. Even an extra 10-15 runs can cost you a game. No wonder 237 runs have cost them 2 Test matches.

Virat Kohli, an exceptional fielder elsewhere, isn’t the same when it comes to slips. Shikhar Dhawan hasn’t been any good, either. The team needs to find a way to sort this issue out. Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay, however, now regular members of the side, offer some hope.

#3 MS Dhoni\'s bizarre tactics

This has been a problem for India overseas. We know MS Dhoni is known to surprise a few of them: sometimes it makes him a hero, but, if it doesn't come off, he becomes the villain. The latter is most often the case in the longer format games, as the team doesn’t have match-winners to compensate for the lack of tactical nous of the captain.

India did very well to bring England to a cautious position of 170-6 at Old Trafford with the help of Varun Aaron and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But, instead of building the pressure, Dhoni let England off, bowling the lesser-threatening bowlers when the situation demanded for aggression from the fielding side.

This has been a problem for the Indian team away from home, not seizing the moment when it is in your hands. Johannesburg and Wellington blunders have more tales to say on the same. Time to change the captain?

#4 Miserable batting

India’s strength over the years has been their batting. While the team has only won when the bowlers have delivered, a number of away Tests that could have been easily lost were saved by heroic performances from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman – the ‘Big 3’, for a reason.

Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, filling up the spots after their retirement, haven’t managed to deliver at the rate, nor is it fair to expect them to. But, at least, they could have put in some fight in the ongoing series. Kohli, in particular, has been woeful with scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0 and 7. What is worse? James Anderson, the opposition’s best bowler, has made the visitors’ best bat his bunny.

It has been so worse that they have even started to give wickets to Moeen Ali; with all due respect to him, he can still be referred to as a batting all-rounder and can’t be second in the list of leading wicket-takers, more so on relatively easier batting decks.

To add to it, with the exception of Vijay and Rahane, the batsmen have been clueless against swing and found wanting against pace, looking like school boys against grown men.

#5 Not the bearded genius

Against South Africa, Imran Tahir was made to look as if he wasn't fit for Test cricket. Kohli and Pujara absolutely launched into him, to an extent that the leg-spinner was dropped for the very next Test.

In complete contrast to that, too much respect has been given to Moeen here in England. After the first Test on a dead deck, questions were raised about his role as a specialist off-spinner, and England had even drafted in a rookie left-arm spinner in Simon Kerrigan as a back-up for the Lord’s Test. Things, however, have made a U-turn, with the offie turning things around remarkably in the 3 Tests that followed.

Ironically, the 27-year-old has had a forgettable series with the bat, with his weakness against bouncers being ruthlessly exposed.