We hate swings and turning tracks but we are the best.

The article contains harsh criticism and honest admiration of the Indian National Men’s Cricket Team and the critic like everyone else is an ardent follower of the game and has never played even a single professional match in the history, so the questions or the assertions that are raised below will be the moral victory for the critic just like this series was a moral victory for Virat Kohli. In the end, we are all united by one mutual dream that is to see the Indian captain lifting the trophy in the Queen’s own backyard.

The English summer of test cricket comes to an end with Joe Root lifting the Specsavers Test Series trophy and also brings down the curtain on the illustrious career of Alastair Cook. The former England skipper who looked miserable in front of Indian pacers and spinners in four matches meant business in the last game of his career. Scoring the total of 218 runs in his last match, he overtook the Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara to become the fifth highest run scorer and the highest scoring left-hander in the history of the test cricket. Playing his first and last match against the Indians and scoring a century in both, Chef has come a long way and definitely deserves a standing ovation for the career he had. Thank you, Alastair Cook, for the memories.

The dismal overseas performance of the Indian cricket team continues. The management, staff, coach, captain and his men have failed to learn from the past mistakes and adapting and improvising wasn’t up to the mark. The captain Virat Kohli is happy to take only the positives from the series but it won’t cost him a penny to have a look over the negatives as well. The series loss against the Proteas wasn’t enough to enlighten Indian batsmen that they have to bat without any fear, going against their natural game always costs them dearly. The consistent effort to defend and let the king of swing Anderson weave his own magic and proved to be deadly as the batsmen barring Virat Kohli were left gasping for room to breathe. Nottingham has breached thanks to one of the best batsmen in the world right now. No guesses for that. Lords was a disaster. And Team India came close in all the other matches only to see the English victorious after the herculean effort. Credit goes to Root and his men on leveraging the key moments in each session to gain an advantage over the clueless visitors.

The good from The good, The bad and The ugly

Against all odds, they survived and he conquered

The search for wicketkeeper-batsmen in tests is ceased due to the arrival of Rishabh Pant on the scene. The 20-year-old Delhi boy is fearless with the bat and is cautious and aware behind the stumps. Though the responsibility of 70 runs given as byes in the penultimate match will be shared by the turning track at The Rose Bowl, Southampton. Pant rose to the occasion in his first and last innings of this test series where he stood tall against the pace attack and decimated the spin in his last. These two innings were not something unusual or extraordinary talent. Instead, these were the signs of the natural and attacking batsmen Rishabh Pant. Put him at any position, ask him to play his natural game and enjoy the show. Dear Pant, don’t listen to anyone else, whether it’s a T20, ODI or Test, play the way you have learned to play. First Adam Gilchrist, then MS Dhoni and now Rishabh Pant. Remember the name, ladies and gentlemen.

Only if he played all the innings of this test series with the confidence and the belief he displayed in the last match at Kennington Oval, KL Rahul would be the name to echo in the halls and galleries of the historic English stadiums. A little tweak made in the placement of front foot and a major change in the belief made KL a force to be reckoned with. 7 years later another Rahul set foot on the English soil with the determination and a mission to conquer the English pacers. Instead of saying he was clearly taken by the bowlers which he was rather he was caught and undone by his own mind. Gratefully he has conquered his own demons before the tour had officially ended. Watch out for him on the coming tours.

The final and the most consistent aspect of the Indian Team was the bowling department. Their valiant efforts gave India the hope of winning in the entire series. Only to be let down by the batsmen and fielders, Indian bowlers contributed enough in the batting as well. M. Shami was unlucky but his will to hit the deck hard and get the ball across the right length was impressive. Whenever the skipper gave him the ball he responded in style. His stats might show a different story but Shami made his mark. Ishant Sharma proved that he is the leader of the pack by leading from the front and making English top order his favorite targets. He was consistent with his line and length and was unplayable at times. Bumrah, Pandya, and Ashwin played their parts and helped the team by controlling the runs and providing the breakthroughs throughout the various sessions in the entire series. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, you were terribly missed.

Indian batsmen and the curse of overseas

A tour to forget for Dhawan, Rahane, Pujara, and Vijay.

With the exception of the last match, KL Rahul lacked belief in the previous four matches. Shikhar Dhawan is clearly no more menacing when it comes to open the batting in the longer format of the game. With the paltry 162 runs in the four test matches, the Southpaw was dismissed by the English bowlers for a score which is by far better than the Gabbar’s standards. The time is surely running out for the Delhi lad. Pujara showcased the grit and class of Rahul Dravid in the penultimate test but was ineffective against the swing and failed miserably on the tracks which expected a stalwart like him to stand tall and carry the team. Murali Vijay might have bid goodbye to his Test Career with a golden duck in the second test match. Again, another batsman failed to reach the expectations. The biggest disappointment was Ajinkya Rahane. Someone who was considered to carry the legacy of the great Dravid in the tests is failing to leave a mark in the game. Just like Pujara, Rahane too showed his form and class in two innings in the entire series and in others he looked unconvincing and out of touch against the swing of Englishmen. Out of 10 innings, he just performed in only 2. South Africa tour was no amazing either. The player was/is considered one of the best overseas players had scored his last century away from home in 2016 at Jamaica. In 2018 he has scored 314 runs with an average of 24. Stats do not do justice to a player of Rahane’s calibre but he was supposed to be the silent guardian, the watchful protector.

Did the expectations bury the talent?

Bat speaks louder than captaincy

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; its the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill

By scoring a mammoth 593 runs in the series, Virat Kohli has surely conquered his demons of the past and slay the fear that Anderson instilled in him last time he was here in England. While the team was crumbling down in front of him, he was sublime with his shots, resolute in his defense, quick to adapt to the out/in swings, patient enough to let go of the testing deliveries and bold enough to punish the loose ones. Virat Kohli’s batting is like a fine wine and so is his aggression and passion for the game. With no signs of slowing down the world’s best batsman displayed one of the finest performances by an Indian batsman on the English soil. Even though Virat never ceases to amaze us but his decisions as a captain prove to be costly. Such as never trying to stop a single while Buttler or Curran was batting with the tail-enders. Going on the defensive mode when Cook and Root were trolling Indian bowlers who didn’t pose a single threat to them in the final test. Why wasn’t Vihari used often in the first innings of the last test? Why wasn’t King Kohli weaving the web for the English while on the field? His actions were passive and were in reply to Root’s decisions. A captain is the one who wins the game before the toss happens. The mindset and the tactics to reduce English to ashes were not prepared well and not improvised either. His aggression gets the better of him and his brain. His heart takes the control and then he goes for the decisions which if taken with little more insight and patience can be more fruitful. A captain is the main weapon of the coach.

So is the coach responsible for the lack of timely decisions of the skipper?

Catches win matches and the selection melodrama

Jadeja repenting and regretting the moment when he dropped Alastair Cook early in his innings

Indians love movies and a happy ending always guarantees house full shows. Remember the movie MS Dhoni the untold story? The moment when MS Dhoni (the character played by Sushant Singh Rajput) was having a discussion with the selectors of the Indian Team, he stated the batsmen will score runs, bowlers will take wickets, but fielders will take catches, stop runs in every single match. Citing this reason some of the senior players were axed from the team. This series should be a reminder for the selectors and the management as well. Missed catches are missed matches. The slip cordon was terrible except KL Rahul stepping up in the last 2 matches and taking everything that was thrown at him. The captain, the vice-captain were in the list of fielders dropping the catches.

Karun Nair was in the team for the entire tour and went unused and so was Prithvi Shaw and Shardul Thakur. Winning was at stake, but with the players who refuse to think out of the box, it was difficult. Rishabh Pant was an example of breathing fresh air into wicket keeping and as well as batting. So was Bumrah when introduced in the third match and so was Jadeja when given the chance in the final match. Players turn into stars with a bit help from their captain and coaches.

Would Rishabh Pant been discovered if Dinesh Karthik was played in the remaining matches?

Who knows what or who we might be looking for in Prithvi Shaw, Karun Nair, and Shardul Thakur?

Thunder Down Under Awaits...

Come November the Indians will visit the Aussies and hope to revenge the defeat they suffered last time. This time the Australians will be without Warner and Smith. But the pace attack would still be there and so would be Mitchell Starc. Will the Indian selectors and management give another chance to out of form Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara and Rahane or will they give chance to the young, dynamic and fearless stars of tomorrow?

Indian team needs a thorough introspection of the weak areas and find weaklings in those departments. Without self-learning and improving no one manages to be number 1 and stay number 1. A champion side always shows the character whether they are playing at home or away and manages to secure the win against all odds. That’s how winning is done. That’s how every Indian fan learned about winning by seeing the bold and the courageous Sourav Ganguly who believed in nurturing talent and hitting the enemy in the mind before winning them over on the pitch.

Whatever the selectors and the management decides, the tour of England was definitely an eye-opener. And if the lessons are not learned and mistakes are not amended we are definitely looking at another series loss. But captain Kohli and his coach believe that this side is the best Indian side in the past 15 years. Well, only time will tell whether they will put their money where their mouth is or will they be running for places to hide when it thunders down under.