India in England, 4th Investec Test

Test cricket is on it's peak in England. Two teams from two great nations. One opressed by the other for nearly two hundred years. Many would have forgot that, but nobody had forgotten the 4-0 defeat the English team gave India in 2011. The win at Lords gave Indians a hope that they can have their revenge this year. The hopes are still on but for that they need to beat England again, thanks to the failure in the third test.

Why India lost?
India had the momentum going into the third test, they had their best batting line up, then why did they lose?

1. Loss of Ishant Sharma.
  Ishant Sharma was the only bowler who has been a part of team India for a long time. He was the most experienced bowler. He had been a threat to Bell and Cook, who stared in his absence. BCCI should do more to keep its bowlers fit.

2. Team selection.
  I have been arguing this for more than a week now. Presence of Binny was crucial to the Indian Bowling line up. How else Dhoni was planning to get 20 English batsmen out by only 3 bowlers. Yes! Jadeja was also a bowler but not much of threat in the first two sessions of the match and that's when you gain momentum in a test. Binny would have given rest to the strike fast bowlers and kept the threat of swing on. The inclusion of Rohit Sharma was unjustified and hey didn't binny play a knock of 76 in the first test?

3. Batting collapse.
The middle order needs to take responsibility here. Virat and Dhoni are some of the most experienced players on tour. They can't keep failing eveytime. No comments on Rohit, he has seldom succeeded at number 6.

There are still two positives from this test. One was the outstanding batting by Rahane. He is getting better and better. I hope he have a double century on this tour ( except he runs out of partners Fedor his century). The other was the bowling of Pankaj Singh. He bowled well but was just unlucky.

It would be interesting to see how Dhoni and Cook lead their troops in the 4th test, but if it gives a result then it would be difficult for the losers to come back.