India vs England: Most Indian batters fell well short of the challenge at Edgbaston

The Edgbaston Test ended as quite a walloping for the Indian team, with the English batters doing what they have been doing so well off late – run down stiff totals with deceptive ease. In the kind of form they are in, one could be excused for assuming that even a 400-plus total might not have challenged them. But we will never know, will we? Because the Indian batter never really got off the ground collectively to ensure that the hosts were given a challenge that even they might find difficult to get past. While it is the bowling that ended up looking ordinary on the fourth and fifth days, make no mistake, India lost the Test while batting. India were hamstrung by the absence of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, that is for sure. But that is something that needs to be put aside since you get to play with what you have, and India had plenty, at least on paper. Unfortunately, most of it stayed there only. Barring a great show by Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja in the first essay and some contribution from Cheteshwar Pujara , the batting was way below par.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England in recent Tests:

At Lord's: ✅ 277 run target

At Nottingham: ✅ 299 run target

At Leeds: ✅ 296 run target

At Edgbaston: ✅ 378 run target

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The first inning was a classic example. Asked to bat, India were not looking bad, but somehow contrived to find themselves at 98/5. Shubman Gill looks in fine form when he essays his off-drives, but then he swats at a delivery with his feet rooted firmly to the crease, and the slips get some easy chances. Same happened here. Hanuman Vihari tries to stick around but surely in modern-day cricket, that is not enough. The attack needs to get to the opposition bowling and neither Gill nor Vihari have lived up to that here. And the latter also has not done the essential job of playing out the early overs effectively to make it easier for the middle-order. Speaking of the numbers four and five, this Test was a story of such stark contrasts. Virat Kohli made a lot of headlines when India were fielding with his theatrics on the field, but his core job of scoring runs aggressively seems to have abandoned him . Scores of 11 and 20 in the two innings both had a shade of misfortune in the shape of dismissals. But the way he is going, there was not guarantee that he’d play on, had either the inside edge eluded the stumps in the first knock, or had Joe Root missed a reflex grab after Sam Billing fumbled the edge in the second. Kohli can’t buy a score nowadays, and while there is a lot of defence for him , the undertones of discontent among the fans are beginning to now gather momentum. But Pant has once again showed that he is way more comfortable against the red Test cricket ball than the white one, which in itself is a little bit of a surprise. Possibly just a glitch, but one hopefully he will sort out quickly. But on the Test arena, Pant once again showed his worth in the Indian batting order. The left-hander will play and miss several times, but his first inning assault on the English bowlers was something else. Safely one of the better knocks by an India batter in England. The wicketkeeper also put a price on his wicket in the second inning and was by far the most consistent of the lot, though his tendency to go a little crazy outside the off-stump persists.

Then we have Shreyas Iyer. The Mumbai batter was possibly in the best place in terms of position to bat, with at least some of the early movement of the cricket ball have been dealt with. But his problem, as found out ruthlessly by the English bowlers, was his inability to handle the short stuff and they made him pay in both innings. Jadeja too weighed in with the bat. He is never short of trying and even as the Indian batting fell way behind in their efforts to post a bigger fourth-inning challenge for England, he, along with Pujara, at least get marks for trying. So, irrespective of Jasprit Bumrah’s late-order fireworks , India were essentially batting on three cylinders out of seven, hardly the kind of contribution that helps win a series. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but several of the Indian batters indeed are skating on thin ice, at least now. Somehow, such things always get pushed under the carpet, but there is no doubt that the return of Sharma and Rahul will be welcome. But the wish of sealing off another series in England stayed a pipe dream, which is a pity. Read all the  Latest News ****,  Trending News ****,  Cricket News ****,  Bollywood News ****,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook****,  Twitter and  Instagram****.