India vs England: India Avenges 2014 Debacle
If team India was told before the series that they would win it 3-0, it would have been perhaps to early to believe. The way England played here in 2012 and then in 2014 back in England meant that they were a tough competition. But the way the India vs England series went on, after the first Test at Rajkot, only one team seemed likely to win the series and that was India.
Yes, they were playing in home conditions, but the victories had other factors contributing as well apart from them playing at home and in home conditions. They had a better team, better batting attack and a much better bowling attack than their opponent.
Virat Kohli: The Difference
One deciding factor though which at last became the fine line between England and victories was Virat Kohli versus the entire England team. The series which started as a Test series between two cricketing nations ultimately became a battle between one nation and a player who just went about his business as a thorough professional.
A total of 640 runs in the series with two hundreds and as many fifties, gives an indication of where England actually found it difficult to stop India, because they just couldn’t stop Virat Kohli from scoring the runs he did. In the process he got good support from the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay and his all rounders who were exceptional with their contribution.
For Kohli, captaincy has brought out the best in him as he has now won his fourth straight series as the Indian Test skipper. He is also batting like a dream and runs are guaranteed from his bat. This augurs well for India as they host Australia next for another exciting series at home also with an eye of revenge after their 2015 series loss down under.
Indian Spinners Destroying England
Now coming down to the 4th Test match, the moment India got a first innings lead of over 200, it was sure that England was sure to lose the Test match given the fact that the ball would turn more in the second innings as by that time the pitch wears down and the cracks open up to help the spinners.
Very fittingly thus the two Indian spinners in Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin shared a total of 43 wickets in the series with Jayant Yadav adding 9 more to the tally, making it 52 wickets for India’s spin bowling department.
For India, Jayant Yadav was the find of the series. Given his first Test outing, he grabbed it with both hands to almost guarantee his place for the upcoming Australian series hopefully. There is Amit Mishra, the leggie in the ranks up as well, but Yadav’s ability with the bat edges him ahead of Mishra.
England Batting Fails Miserably
England will look back in the series and feel that they really did not make much of an effort to win the matches. More of it was to do with the fact that they succumbed to the threat of the spinning trio of India. Alastair Cook who was the chief destroyer with the bat for England the last time they toured India along with Kevin Pietersen, failed to keep up his form. Jadeja very skilfully figured out his weakness of playing across the line and pegged him back on the same delivery time and time again. He dismissed Cook four times in the series and all were almost similar identical dismissals.
Joe Root who was expected to be the linchpin of the England batting line up along with Cook, failed repeatedly to capitalize on the starts that he got. 397 runs from the three test matches somewhere goes to show the lack of runs from his bat especially when you look at Kohli’s 640.
All in all, this has been a very fulfilling series for India. They played some good tough and competitive cricket and rightly have finished as the winning team in the series. India vs England has always been a series to watch out for and this has been no different.