(Cricket news) India were leading 2-1 after 4 matches and needed to avoid a loss to win a historic series. Unfortunately for the men in blue, England won the match by 7 wickets by completing an incredible 4th innings chase of 378 runs. This was England's highest ever run chase and also the 8th highest run chase in Test cricket history. India were well in control of the game but things changed quickly which showed the beauty of Test cricket. India have a lot of things to sort out because it's now 3 consecutive overseas games they have lost. There were a lot of things that went wrong for India in the 5th match, some of which were very unfortunate.
The fact that the 5th Test match was postponed didn't work out too well for India because it meant that they didn't get enough practice and momentum before coming into this Test which was the only red ball game of the tour. England on the other hand came in straight after a 3-0 series win against World Test Champions New Zealand. KL Rahul who was incredible in the first four games was ruled out with an injury which was a very big blow. Captain and the other opener Rohit Sharma was ruled out days before the match with Covid and couldn't recover in time. The absence of Rohit and Rahul meant that the inexperienced Gill had to open along with Cheteshwar Pujara who was out of his preferred position.
India played the first two innings very well despite losing the toss. In the first innings, India lost early wickets but centuries from Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja rescued India and put them in a commanding position with a total of 416 runs. India put in a good bowling performance as they bowled England out for 245 runs. The 3rd innings is where India fell a little short with the bat and the bowling in the last innings was extremely poor. Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja are the only batters who scored runs. Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer didn't contribute anything substantial.
India's approach in the 2nd innings was very defensive and they allowed the England bowlers to dominate them. The shot selection for some of the dismissals was abysmal. Despite the batting failure 378 was still a very defendable total. On day four Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah bowled well but the other bowlers were very. Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur were way too loose and ineffective. It was very easy for the England batters to keep the scoreboard ticking when they were bowling. Ravindra Jadeja was constantly bowling over the wicket to the right handers as he tried to pitch the ball into the rough. It was way too defensive and it looked like he was just there to slow the run rate which happened only for a little while.
Bumrah and Shami were good on day 4 but with so little to defend on day 5 their performance also dipped. India never looked like picking up a wicket as it was too easy for Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root. It was Jasprit Bumrah's first match as captain and tactically he was a bit naive. The field placements were changing constantly as Bumrah brought the point fielder in to stop the single and was sending him back after conceding a boundary but then again brought him inside after two singles. It is just the first time so he will improve in the future with more experience.
The fielding was also very poor throughout the match. England captain Ben Stokes was dropped twice in the first innings while Jonny Bairstow was dropped in the second innings. There were a few misfields as well which may have made the difference in some way. India's performance will be questioned and rightly so but a tied away series against England is a good result in any circumstances. England had defeated World Test Champions New Zealand 3-0 just before the match. It wouldn't be wrong to say that India lost to a very good Test side. Rahul Dravid and the other all format players now have no time to reflect as they go straight into the T20Is which will be followed by the ODIs. India will be hoping that they can win the white ball series to bounce back. The next Test series will be in Bangladesh in December and there could be a few changes in the squad.
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