The Positives and the Downsides for the Indian Test Team in 2018

5. The miscalculations of the team management in team composition and selection of the players

Shastri and Kohli made a number of wrong calls in 2018

The Indian team management headed by Captain Virat Kohli and Head Coach Ravi Shastri committed the following miscalculations in the year.

a) In the first two Test matches in South Africa, India dropped their most reliable batsman Ajinkya Rahane to accommodate Rohit Sharma. India lost both the Test matches.

b) In the second Test match of the England series at Lord’s, on a seamer-friendly wicket and under overcast conditions, India decided to drop Umesh Yadav and go in with Kuldeep Yadav.

c) Throughout the England series, KL Rahul was persisted with in spite of repeated failures and Karun Nair was continuously ignored and subsequently dropped. Prithvi Shaw never got a look-in despite the failure of the other 3 openers.

d) In the England series, Jadeja was ignored until the last Test at the Oval and the half-fit Ashwin was persisted with.

e) At the start of the Australian tour, the selectors made a big mistake by recalling Murali Vijay. After Vijay’s struggle in England, Mayank Agarwal should have been given a chance much earlier. Vijay, in his return, failed along with the other opener KL Rahul.

f) In the second Test at Perth, the Indian team management decided to go in with an all-pace attack and included Umesh Yadav in the playing XI in place of a spinner. As it turned out, Nathan Lyon, the off-spinner from the opposition camp, ended up with 8 wickets in that match.

g) In the third Test at Melbourne, India’s decision not to enforce the follow-on after taking a first innings lead of 292 caused sleepless nights for all the Indian fans. Taking into consideration the weather forecast and the strength or the lack of it of the Australian batting line-up, India should have enforced the follow-on.

To sum up, the Year 2018 has been a reasonably good year for Team India in Test matches. Though their success rate is only 50%, they managed to win 4 overseas Test matches and are now at the brink of creating history down under.