England v India: 4th Test, Days 1-4, Irresistible India

 

England v India: 4^th Test, Days 1-4

Irresistible India

December 11^th 2016

The smart money is on India wrapping-up the 4^th Test and the series before Lunch tomorrow. This Test has been chastening as the previous two, with India riding roughshod over an England side that was often brave and fought hard much of the time, but that just did not seem to have the ideas or the ability to turn things around. One of the key moments of the Test may be when Cook was off for a time on Day 3 and Joe Root took over, immediately putting himself on to bowl with India in complete control at 305-4 and picking up Patel and Ashwin in four balls. For a few minutes, England were right back in the game. If England end up losing 4-0, the whispers that Joe Root might make a better captain, may well become much louder, citing just that incident.

Sadly, the “what comes next” was as predictable as ever: another quick wicket and England could have been looking at a precious first innings lead, but India just motored off into the distance. A partnership of 57 between Kohli and Jadeja was bad news. One of 241 for the eighth wicket between Kohli and Yadav was a humiliation. All through the series India’s unheralded bottom four have scored runs in abundance, turning even positions into totally one-sided ones. In contrast, England’s lower order, most with First Class centuries and ample batting pedigree, has not managed to reach a 40, let alone the century of Yadav or the 90 of Jadeja. While the Indian tail makes hay, the England tail look, all too often, like rabbits in the headlights.

If England had eked-out a lead of even 20, the third innings would have been nicely set up. England would have set a target of some sort and a target gives hope. However, when you spend 78 overs bowling at the bottom four and 65 bowling at 9, 10, Jack, any remaining spirit  of resistance that you may have had is totally crushed.

Keaton Jennings will reflect on the role of luck. On the first morning he offered a difficult chance from the tenth ball that he had faced in Test cricket: difficult, but India have taken more difficult ones during the series. The chance was missed and Jennings became just the third England batsman to make a century on his first day of Test cricket. In the second innings he was unfortunate to get a superb delivery from Kumar, first ball that he had faced, which did what England’s four seamers had totally failed to do: hooping in-swing. Jennings was trapped in front and, although he would have survived a review if he had been given not out originally, thanks to two reds and an umpire’s call, he was dead in the water. It was another of those decisions that shows that however much DRS has evened the playing field, luck still plays its part. Jennings could have been lucky, been given the benefit of the doubt and survived on review but it would have been ridiculously unlucky for the bowler. Debut century in the first innings. Golden duck in the second. How the wheel turns.

Jenning’s first innings showed what we already knew about him: if he gets a start, he will go on, implacably, to make a big score. It is a useful talent to have, although it may subject him to opprobrium from the fans if he strings together three or four low scores consecutively: just a couple of failures and those glowing appraisals of the first day that England now have a potential have a top four  (Cook, Hameed, Jennings, Root) that will serve them for years, will be subject to a cruel revisionist hindsight. Those who follow county cricket should know though that Jennings can string together several failures but, when he gets in, he does score big and he allows others to bat around him to build match-winnings totals.

Even though Cook and Root suggested solidity, what was to come was entirely predictable. You suspend all competitivity for a day in the field and find that turning it back on with the bat becomes a massive task. Once Cook fell, Moeen’s winter, which started so well, took another turn for the worse. Not helped by being shuttled up and down the order, his 117 in the 1^st Test has been followed by 1, 2, 16, 5, 50 and 0, with his first innings dismissal here being widely condemned for provoking the collapse that followed. The old fan cry of “Trott’s Fault!!!” every time there is a batting collapse is now morphing into “Moeen’s Fault!!!”

When you need 231 to make the opposition bat again on a pitch that is giving the opposition bowlers a help that your own never had, a start of 49-3 is the last thing that you need. What happened next? Events followed a depressingly familiar pattern. Root and Bairstow batted brilliantly. The Indian bowling and fielding started the get ragged as the partnership mounted. We entered the last hour of the day with the optimists thinking that if they were still together after an hour in the morning India might just have an uncomfortable afternoon. Suddenly, Yadav got a ball through Joe Root and pinned him back against the stumps. In no time at all, 141-3 and hope became 182-6 and “game over”. Once again hope built and the last hour of play killed it. Yes, England have Buttler, Woakes and Adil Rashid to partner Bairstow but, in reality, Bairstow will need to push on to a century and at least one of his partners make a fifty for England to have a chance to escape. The pundits do not expect the game to get as far as Lunch on Day 5 and we have no real reason to hope that things will turn out otherwise. Whereas now we are getting to expect that one of the Indian lower order will flog the attack, England’s supposedly more accomplished batsman suggest no such threat.

India are showing that they are formidable warriors at home, led by the amazing contribution of Virat Kohli: 40, 49*, 167, 81, 62, 6* & 235. In the same way, Ravi Ashwin, who finished the 1^st Test with match figures of 3-230 and a bowling average against England of over 50, has come roaring back with 5-67, 3-52, 1-43, 3-81, 6-112 and (to date) 2-49 and has subjugated England. After a 1^st Test that England largely controlled, there has hardly been a day won by England since. Before the series the pundits talked of 5-0. 4-0 is looking an increasing inevitable result as the Indian juggernaut flattens England’s challenge. Kohli and Ashwin are carrying all before them and giving their team and their fans the belief that they are unstoppable.

Some of the England picks have been debatable (four seamers here was in response to the calls to play to the strengths of the squad and not to play a spinner just for the sake of it if you do not have one worth his place, but the pitch has done nothing for them). The choice of support spinners for Moeen and Adil Rashid has been somewhat sui generis. With Monty Panesar seemingly in a downward spiral out of the game (this season he has had three First Class outings for Northants with negligible success and has played most of his cricket at club level, with occasional 2^nd XI and Minor County games), the one spinner that most people agree is probably the best available – Jack Leach – is in the UAE with the Lions, while Liam Dawson, at least at present a far inferior bowler, soaks up the atmosphere in India. If Dawson is not to be trusted to play a Test, why not have Leach in India to bowl in the nets and get used to the atmosphere as England have done in the past with Adil Rashid? Jack Leach could have been in India learning, getting the feel of the atmosphere around the squad and preparing the batsmen for the challenge that faces them.

In the end though, the Indian attack has simply been far superior in the conditions. There has been no need to load the conditions in their favour. None of the pitches has been vicious. India have just been capable of getting far more out of them than England and their batsmen have negated the opposition attack far better than England’s.