India became the first team in cricket history to lose a test match despite having 5 centurions as England completed a fine win on the final day of the first test at Headingley. A fine opening stand from Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett laid the foundations for England’s chase on the fifth day, and they eventually got home in the final hour of play.
Here are our talking points from the game.
Lower order batting collapses cost India dear
India will be looking at the scorecard of this game and wonder just how they managed to lose this one. The answer primarily lies in the inability of the tail to wag- they were 430/3 in the first innings and 333/4 in the second innings but were bowled out for 471 and 364 respectively.
That’s twin collapses of 7/41 and 6/31 across the two innings for the visitors- by comparison England went from 276/5 to 465 in their first innings.
The good part for India is that their top order looked in sublime touch and accumulated 5 centuries between them. The lower-order collapses can be avoided with a change in personnel for the remaining tests, and Melbet reckons this will be a closely fought series, albeit with England holding a slight upper hand following this victory at Headingley.
The visitors have a week to recuperate before the next test at Edgbaston, which will then be followed by games at Lord’s, Old Trafford and the Oval. There is plenty of time still left in this series and India dominated enough portions of the game at Headingley to suggest that they won’t be pushovers on the remainder of the tour.
Over-dependence on Bumrah
India’s plan A, B and C with the ball all seemed to rest on one person- Jasprit Bumrah. The rest of the bowling, especially the third and fourth choice bowlers were insipid, and you cannot win tests against quality opposition with just one or two in-form bowlers.
Prasidh Krishna went for over a run-a-ball in both innings and Shardul Thakur was barely used.
Do Jurel, NKR and Kuldeep deserve a look-in?
Shardul Thakur was selected as a bowling all-rounder, but barely bowled- he only sent down 6 overs in the first innings and 10 in the second. If he isn’t bowling, India may be better served taking Nitish Kumar Reddy, especially in light of their batting collapses. The Andhra all-rounder scored a fine century at the MCG, and is more than capable with the bat. If Nitish is selected, it might also bring the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Dhruv Jurel and even Arshdeep/Harshit Rana into the picture as India seek a 11 that covers all bases.
Dropped catches
Catches win matches and India were very ordinary in the field at Headingley. They dropped the likes of Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook, and the troika fully capitalised on those lives given.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was the main culprit in the field- his drops effectively cancelled out his fine century from the first innings. If India were excellent in the field, just as South Africa had been at Lord’s in the recently concluded WTC final, this first test could’ve easily had a different result.