5 reasons why teams are failing to win overseas Test series

The Toss

England v India 2018: Toss did play a role in this series

A lot has been debated about this matter in recent times. Cricket experts have voiced out their opinions of the pros and the cons involved in banning the toss. England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) went one step ahead in the county championship by scrapping the age-old tradition of flipping the coin from the year 2016. Although this decision has been met with criticism from a large section of the cricketing fraternity, it definitely gives all of us a food for thought.

In recent times, a lot of attention has been given to the playing surfaces. A home captain prefers to exercise his strengths by asking the curators to prepare a strip which favours the home team. Once the toss is won by the home captain, he prefers to bat first and its one-way traffic which peters out literally to a "no contest" scenario. This does not provide a good advertisement to Test cricket.

After having beaten South Africa in 2015-16 on rank turners, India prepared against fair surfaces against England and Australia in 2016-17 barring the exception of Pune. India lost 4 out of 5 tosses against England and still won the series 4-0. Against Australia, India lost 3 out of the 4 tosses and still won the series 2-1. India's win was definitely commendable as they played on fair surfaces and the touring teams had the decision making authority during the toss.

In India's recent overseas tours to South Africa and England, the pitches were bordering between being lively and green. India lost 7 out 8 tosses and won a match each against England and South Africa. The interesting aspect is India won both the matches where they batted first and lost 6 matches where they batted last. The results would have been different had India won a few crucial tosses in Cape Town, Ageas Bowl and Lords.

Teams follow a common pattern which is to win the toss, bat first and make the touring team bat last on a wearing pitch. If the toss can be scrapped, it provides a level playing field to the touring team as the home captain and the curators have to be wary, that preparing surfaces to drive the home advantage can severely backfire.