For comments on the 2018 tour of England (so far), read comments on the recent tours: lack of proper acclimatisation, poor selection of playing eleven, the refusal to accept that in the first game of a long series, it is better to play the extra batsman and be safe rather than feel sorry. India have lost the first Test of a series for so long and so often that there is a depressing pattern here.
The Shastri-Kohli combination thinks positively, wants to attack from the start and stamp the game and series with their personality. All of this is good. But you have to consider that Kohli apart, the batting isn’t so hot. And while the cliché is that bowlers win matches, in India’s case at least, batsmen lose them.
Old-timers here in England recall that the last time it was so hot and uncomfortable was in 1976, and the highlight of that series was a magnificent bowling spell by Michael Holding who took 14 wickets at the Oval without any extra help from the wicket.
The conditions, in fact, should suit the visitors better than the home side which is a paradox in sport but understandable.
For Kohli to have made 200 runs in the Edgbaston Test, it was not just a test of skill and temperament but adaptability too. His colleagues seemed to be happier getting back to the cooler rooms in the pavilion.
It isn’t just India, of course. Most countries, given the amount of cricket they play, tend to go into a series with just one game or a knockabout (as India did here against Essex).
Perhaps the International Cricket Council should mandate that every touring team plays at least two, if not three first-class matches before a Test series. This is a suggestion former editor of Wisden, Scyld Berry has made. If they won’t do it voluntarily, then force them to. It is a thought. The odds are in favour of the home team anyway, and anything to reduce them should be considered.
And so to Lord’s, where four years ago, and thanks to a clever spell of bowling by Ishant Sharma, India beat England. Ishant kept bowling short, and the batsmen kept pulling into the hands of fielders with embarrassing monotony. If traditionally the first Test of a five-match series is an opportunity to suss out the opposition, the second is a chance to go for a win and establish an early lead. After losing the first, India need to pick a team capable of winning the second, and hence the need for a better balanced team geared towards a win rather than a draw. Opportunities slip away as fast as they arise.
Time to play Kuldeep
Funnily enough, both teams probably regret having left out the second spinner; India more so. Wrist spin was expected to play a role in India’s approach, and the time has come to play Kuldeep Yadav. The counter argument might be that it wasn’t the bowling that was India’s problem in Edgbaston where they restricted England in both innings. But a team with a victory under its belt and oozing with confidence is a different proposition.
Yadav is the kind of bowler who can upset that feeling of superiority; in fact can use the batsman’s confidence against him.
By the second Test of away series where India have lost the first, it has become a cliché to say that it is not yet time to panic. But perhaps it is. Part of the new world of away matches is that there are no First Class matches once the series has got underway. So from here on selections are no longer made on match fitness or current form, but on instinct, feel and hunch. Will Shikhar Dhawan find his touch or Rahul be prepared to play the long innings? Net sessions can reveal only so much. This means that those who have been in the reserves might find their chances improving with every ball they don’t play.
Perhaps in future, key players looking for form might be distributed among the counties as guests for a match or two.
In 2011, India came to England riding a crest. This was likely to be the last tour here by Sachin Tendulkar and his golden generation. India lost every Test. This time too India came in as the No. 1 team in the world, with Virat Kohli’s record in England in need of severe repairs. The Kohli conundrum has been resolved. His two innings in the first Test are the stuff of legends. Had he batted another half an hour, the problems before the Lord’s Test would have all been in the England dressing room. It was always assumed that a successful Kohli would mean a successful India. That hasn’t been the case, and India’s batsmen have to remind themselves that they have a responsibility too.
Lord’s could decide the direction of the series. For once in England, with temperatures in the 30s and the heat close to being unbearable, no one expects rain.