India vs England 2016: How the debutants fared

Shifting over from domestic cricket to International cricket for the first time is never a piece of cake. Yet, every player dreams of representing their nation and feature in the squad if not make the eleven. For some of them, things don’t often go as planned, while others back up their selection with a string of astute performances.

The recently concluded India-England series has seen five players (two from India and three from England) making their debut. England has been humbled by an effervescent bunch of Indian cricketers by a margin of 4-0 and the series was one-way traffic. Nonetheless, it’s the debutants who have been the centre of scrutiny in the series.

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#1 Haseeb Hameed

England was in dire requisite of an opener to partner Alastair Cook and that’s when Haseeb Hameed came to the fore. At the tender age of 19, Hammed has demonstrated his credentials as an incisive batsman. The runs didn’t flow of his bat, but it’s the manner in which he got them earned him accolades from round the globe.

In a short span of three Tests, the ‘Baby Boycott’ from England has already had a couple of striking shows with the willow. In his debut Test at Rajkot, with a score of 82, he spurred England to a decent second innings total.

The grit in Hameed was on show during the third Test at Mohali when he strode out to bat at number eight with a broken finger. The pain and grimace wasn’t enough to overshadow Hameed’s robustness both as an individual and as a batsman. He scored a hard-fought 59 runs off 156 balls.

Though India chased down the target in a canter, it was Hameed who carried England single-handedly from a score of 107/6 to 236 all out. Later, due to his injury, Hameed was ruled out of the series, but he played well enough to stay in contention for further Tests in the future. Let’s take a look at Hammeed’s numbers in the series

Batting
Matches	Runs	Average	Strike-Rate	Fifties	Hundreds	Best	Conversion-Rate
3	219	43.80	34.21	2	0	82	0

#2 Jayant Yadav

Jayant Yadav excelled in the series with both bat and ball

Picked up as an off-spinner, Jayant Yadav impressed with bat and ball. He bowled exceedingly well only to outclass his primary role with some exquisite batsmanship. He has a vicious stock delivery which is a handful on sub-continent tracks.

He gave a good account of himself as a lower order batsman, and started his Test career with a couple of 20s and a solitary 50, and added to the depth of the Indian batting-line up. The big innings came at the Wankhede where he carted the English bowlers and raced to his maiden Test ton. Astonishingly enough, in the first session of Day four, he outscored Virat Kohli - an achievement in itself.

A top-order batsman would be proud of the shots dished out by Jayant during his mammoth stand with Kohli. The innings showed Yadav’s ability to switch gears. With the England bowlers’ tails up, Jayant curbed his natural instincts and started accelerating just when the heads of the Englishmen started dropping.

It’s pretty imperative to say that he has cemented his place in the Test team in home conditions. Though too early to say it, it won’t be surprising if Jayant is installed into the team as a specialist batsman. At the age of 26, the learning curve is still at a rudimentary level, which’s foreseen to get better by the day.

Batting
Matches	Runs	Average	Strike-Rate	Fifties	Hundreds	Best	Conversion-Rate
3	221	73.66	45.28	1	1	104	50.00

Bowling
Matches	Wickets	Average	Strike-Rate	5-wicket	10-wicket	Best Bowling
3	9	29.55	54.30	0	0	4/68

#3 Keaton Jennings

Keaton Jennings has all the skills to be a dependable batsman

Son of former South African mentor and coach, Rey Jennings, the South African-born Jennings impressed on his debut series.

Keaton made his debut in the fourth Test against a vociferous Mumbai crowd, as is the case in innumerable occasions at the Wankhede. It was a mixed bag for the man from Transvaal, Johannesburg. He was far from fluttered by the nerves of a debut match and struck a maiden Test ton.

The fact that he was steered by the captain himself at the other end, eased the pressure on the youngster. It eventually required a peach of a delivery from Ashwin to get rid of Jennings, but not after he played a marathon 70 overs on the opening Day.

‘Cricket is a great leveler’- Jennings’ second innings story was pretty similar. After a century on Day one, he didn’t survive long and was adjudged LBW of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. In his second Test, he played well enough to gather yet another half-century. England has a reason to smile looking at the breed of players they are bringing into limelight.

Batting
Matches	Runs	Average	Strike-Rate	Fifties	Hundreds	Best	Conversion-Rate
2	167	41.75	46.64	1	1	112	50.00

#4 Karun Nair

Karun Nair became India’s second triple-centurion in Tests

Rohit Sharma’s quadriceps injury meant that Nair got a chance in the playing XI and in the process, he became the 287^th player to represent India in Test cricket. He had an unforgettable start to his Test career, perishing to a run-out by Jos Buttler, after scoring four from that much deliveries.

The Mumbai Test didn’t turn to be lucky for Nair either as he was again dismissed cheaply courtesy an overturned LBW decision off the bowling of Moeen Ali. Nevertheless, in the short stint of 13 runs, he had hit three scorching boundaries.

With 17 runs from the first two Tests at an average of 8.50, Nair felt the heat at the highest level. Nonetheless, he struck an incredible innings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. After England piled on 477 in the first innings, it needed a decent show from the Indian batsmen.

Nair came in third down and dominated the English bowlers from the word go. He used his feet efficiently, played the sweeps and reverse-sweeps to good effect and went on to become the second Indian, after Virender Sehwag, to register a 300 in Test cricket. From an unknown commodity, he turned into an overnight star.

Batting
Matches	Runs	Average	Strike-Rate	Fifties	Hundreds	Best	Conversion-Rate
3	320	160.00	79.40	0	1	303*	100.00

#5 Liam Dawson

Liam Dawson has the potential to be a quality all-rounder

The Wiltshire-born cricketer had a tough time in the one Test he played in the five-match series. Nevertheless, he has been a crucial addition to England’s depth in batting. With England on the rocks, the management gave Dawson a go in the final Test.

For a lower order batsman, he displayed a composed head as he turned the strike over and squirted out boundaries without much of a fuss. With an innings of 66 runs from 148 balls in the first innings, he led his side to a respectable total of 477.

With the ball, he was miserly enough to put a lid on the scoring and also snapped up two wickets. To be precise, he was England’s highest wicket taker and the most economical as a spinner. At 26, he already has played 118 First-Class games and therefore dearth of experience won’t be a worry.

Batting
Matches	Runs	Average	Stike-Rate	Fifties	Hundreds	Best	Conversion Rate
1	66	66	42.58	1	0	66*	0.00

Bowling
Matches	Wickets	Average	Strike-Rate	5-wicket	10-wicket	Best Bowling
1	2	64.50	129	0	0	2/129