Honourable it might have been, but this was a defeat all the same. An old-fashioned defeat, as in the 1950s and 60s, when all India could hope for in away series was a fighting draw or honour in defeat. That India was not good enough. But this India is, as the No.1 team in the world, and hence the greater expectations. Many fans have decided to skip the Oval Test - India will be playing for ‘honour’ there.
No ifs or buts
Modern sport does not recognise honourable defeats or moral victories. There is no room for the nearly men, the almost winners. There is victory, and there is defeat, and everything else is merely the consolation of the defeated. You either win yourself or make sure the other team doesn’t. Might-have-beens and what-ifs are for those long in memory and tooth.
No post-mortem on this series, however, can ignore the fact that India’s preparation was poor; it took two Tests to get acclimatised. By then the series was nearly over. However you spin it, India lost yet another series here.
Skipper Virat Kohli doesn’t believe in hiding behind platitudes. England deserved to win because they were “braver in tough situations,” he said. He has batted with reputation enhanced, finally letting audiences in England witness his consistency, his audacity and intensity at all times.
Damning statistic
On 61 previous occasions - as the commentators gleefully reminded regularly - when India have been set 200-plus to win in away Tests, they have won only thrice. This is a damning statistic, and speaks to technique as much as temperament. Like the girl in the nursery rhyme, when they are good, India are very good; when they are bad, they are horrid.
And yet, it might so easily have been India leading 3-1 at this stage of the series, or it might have been 2-2. The only Test they lost badly was the second, at Lord’s, where they were thoroughly outplayed.
Lack of temperament
They could have crossed the line at Edgbaston in the opener - perhaps that would have changed the texture of the competition - and, even in the fourth at Southampton had one or two batsmen showed Kohli-like fight. The fourth day track was not easy to bat on, but it wasn’t impossible either, and they call it “Test” cricket for a good reason. It is a test of skill and temperament.
For the third time in a chase of 245 or fewer this year (at Edgbaston here and in Cape Town earlier), the Indian batsmen faltered. They were let down by poor starts in each case, the highest score among the top three being just 19. Everything centred around Kohli, and his dismissal signaled the end of the fight.
Ashwin ‘exposed’
It must be worrying that the world’s leading off spinner, Ravi Ashwin (62 Tests, 327 wickets at the end of the Test) was shown up on a helpful track by Moeen Ali (51 Tests, 142 wickets) playing his first Test of the series.
Ashwin seemed to struggle under the weight of his own reputation; Moeen, grateful to be recalled, kept it simple. Ashwin tried too many things, Moeen’s only target, on a wearing pitch was the spot outside the right hander’s off stump. Perhaps Ashwin wasn’t fully fit, and India took a chance playing him.
India could still finish with an “honourable” 3-2 scoreline. It has been that kind of a series, well-fought between teams that have similar problems but handled them differently.
England’s openers have been struggling too, their best batting has come from the lower middle order where a 20-year old Sam Curran has played the key role in two victories scoring fifties at No. 8 and claiming crucial wickets. It is instructive that Curran hasn’t been compared to Ian Botham or Ben Stokes while Hardik Pandya was being seen as the new Kapil Dev within a few days of the start his career.
Re-jig the line-up
India will have to throw everything into the final Test. Perhaps by giving the teenager Prithvi Shaw a debut, and bringing in Ravindra Jadeja for either Pandya or Ashwin.
For years the Fab Four referred either to India’s great spinners of the 70s or batsmen at the turn of the century. Now Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvaneswar Kumar (missing from this series) have staked a claim to the title too.
Each poses a problem distinct and unique. Sharma with his height and lift and command over left handers, Shami with his skid and control, Bumrah with his ability to generate pace over long periods and his action that confuses even someone like Joe Root. Pace is now India’s strength.
For India, the lessons so far are unambiguous: plan well, drop the unsuccessful and repeat offenders unemotionally, encourage the fighters. Sentiment continues to play a role in selection - just as the DRS does when a top batsman is dismissed, as when Kohli was in the second innings.
Champion teams are ruthless; India like to believe they are, but they have some way to go.
