Report Card - India England Test series

Well everybody seems to have an opinion about the recent under performance of Team India in the tests series. Atleast the scoreline says so. 4-1 seems to suggest that India were outplayed in the tournament. But the fact is that England played well when it mattered. Session by session. India lost those key moments. They got rid of the top half, but allowed the lower middle order to script an escape. They batted well in patches, but fell just when England were losing the plot. It is all a story of missed chances. For the Indians, the report card wears a mixed look.

Virat Kohli 

9

Nobody can dare to give him less than a 9 for the series. He batted like he really wanted to make amends for the 2014 flop show. He played like an earnest champion and was the brightest star of Team India. His captaincy and team selection has been criticised, but then you can not blame him entirely. Remove Kohli, and you remove 40-50% weight from the side. He is that precious a wicket nowadays in any format of the game. Scored 593 runs with 2 tons and 3 half centuries at an average of 59.30, what more do you want from a batsman. 

Ishant Sharma

8.5

Ishant came of age, and believed he was the leader of the bowling unit. He got those elusive edges this time, and despite bowling a lot of overs managed to stay injury free bowling a consistent line troubling the English top order and more often than not being amongst wickets. He finished with 18 wickets, second only to Anderson's haul of 24 wickets. 

Jasprit Bumrah

8.5

Jasprit inspite of having not featured in the first two tests, left an indelible mark in the test series. He bowled at a good pace, and was perhaps the fastest bowler from both sides bowling consistently in excess of 85 mph. He has done his reputation no harm, and batsmen around the world have started taking him very seriously.

Rishabh Pant

7.5

I rate him highly here because he has been arguably the find of the series for India. He has shown that he has talent and could be the long term option Team India has been searching for after the departure of MSD. His keeping is a work in progress, and Saha should walk into the squad based on his superior keeping skills.

Ravindra Jadeja

7

Sir Jadeja impressed me during his lone outing in the last test, especially  with his batting. He has not batted like this for a very long time, so much so that his critics stopped calling him an allrounder. If he bats like the way he did during the 86* he made in the last test, he might be able to displace Ashwin from the playing eleven in Australia. His fielding is a bonus and I would like to see more wickets from him. He has the talent to stay long at the crease, and he needs to watch out for the tendency to throw away his wicket with low percentage shots.

Hanuma Vihari

7

Again, a rank outsider and nobody would have dreamt that he would make the playing XI before the start of the series, especially with India preferring the services of Hardik Pandya and with the original choice of Karun Nair being in the squad already. But then they say it is destiny. He got a 50 on debut and in difficult circumstances. Full marks for his calm and unperturbed stay at the crease. But his batting spot is keenly contested. His bowling proved useful and was able to make 3 breakthroughs for Team India. In short, he justified his selection and adjusted to the conditions well having joined the squad late.

Mohammad Shami
6.5

Shami looked out of sorts in patches and although he was not as much amongst wickets as he would have liked to, he did bowl with a lot of venom in helpful conditions. He was a tad unlucky to not get too many wickets, and I feel his inability to polish the tail inadvertently led to lower order revivals from England. Nevertheless, he remains potent and should be a great asset in Australia.








KL Rahul
6.5

Now you might argue that I am being harsh, especially after he was the only other batsman to get a century apart from Kohli, Pujara and Pant. But a lot was expected of him and despite showing what he is capable for in the last test with that wonderful 149, he needs to get more consistent. To me, he played like the quintessential No 6 batsman rather than a regular opener. He needs to watch out for the incoming deliveries which has been his undoing in this series. I am left a little disappointed after the series, especially his contributions in the tests Team India lost.



Cheteshwar Pujara
6.5

I am glad, and perhaps more than me he would be glad with himself, having found some semblance of form in trying conditions. Pujara looked a lot more assured of himself after the face saving 132* he made in the 4th Test and India ended up making 273 in the first innings after being left teetering at 195-8. Pujara leaves the English shores more relieved than when he arrived after a not so successful County stint, and KL Rahul taking his place in the first test. With limited overs cricket eluding him and no IPL contract, he needed to put up a good show here in the only form of cricket he plays for India. He is a candidate to make those big daddy hundreds and double hundreds, and his best is yet to come.


Hardik Pandya
6.5

I rate him a tad better than you would expect, as in my view he did bowl better than expected. His bowling was a real plus and his 5 wicket haul in no time was a real shot in the arm in the Nottingham test, which Team India eventually won. He is an impact player, but is better suited to bat at 7, and leave the No 6 spot to the specialist wicketkeeper-batsmen in Pant, Saha or DK whoever is in the playing XI that day. He is an interesting package and there are not many who can displace him from the side on a like to like basis.






Ajinkya Rahane
5.5

A quiet tour for Jinx, and although he looked determined but did not make much of an impact on the tour. His form has not been in top gear, and I sensed this even during the IPL. Rahane in my view is also suited to play at No.3; for one he would be faster off the blocks than Pujara, and two it would mean being able to adjust a Rohit Sharma or a Karun Nair in the side. He finished with two half centuries, but is that all he was expected to do?







Ravi Ashwin
5.5

Another superstar who disappointed his fans, but for a change let us give him space. He was carrying an injury, and whether or not it affected his batting or not, it definitely affected his bowling. He needs to be rested for the short Windies Test series and taken care of properly. He feels he needs to reinvent himself for every tour, but he needs to realise that he needs to keep things simple and batsmen will make mistakes. Test cricket is a game of patience. Even Murali had bad days, and so did Bhajji and Kumble. Like Rahane, the arrowhead had a quiet and forgettable tour.





Shikhar Dhawan
5

Although his scores would suggest he had a wretched tour, he actually batted quite well for the brief periods he was at the crease. Brief, albeit by test standards. He is a versatile batsman like Rahul, but he needs to make it count once he is set. The inability of the openers to make it count cost Team India the series. I wrote in a previous post about the contribution and importance of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan in  Team India's ascendancy in Test arena, and the runs from their bats were sorely missed. Hope he is able to regain form sooner than later and is not dumped in a knee jerk reaction from the selectors.




Umesh Yadav
4.5

It is difficult to see him play should Bhuvi, Shami, Ishant and Bumrah be fit. He has been wayward in the past, but has improved in the last 1.5 year or so. He played only the first Test match where he did pick important wickets of Jamie Bairstow and Sam Curran but did not leave a big impact and was left under-bowled in the second innings.








Kuldeep Yadav
4

The Team was eager to play him and they did play him ahead of Jadeja and defying logic according to some. But, he was bowling so well during the limited overs leg of the tour and had that aura of intrigue around him that playing him seemed irresistible. He went wicketless on a pitch where England were mindful of him, and it was good thinking that he was sent back home to play for India-A to get valuable match practice ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup.








Murali Vijay
3

A disappointing tour for Murali Vijay, with his reputation taking serious damage. From being the default Test opener for Team India before the start of the series, to being dropped and now being perhaps on the brink of being relegated to being 4th or 5th choice. Remember Prithvi Shaw is knocking at the door, and so is Mayank Agarwal. In a previous post on openers, I eulogized his ability to leave the ball outside the off stump, a facet of his batting that has kept him safe on foreign pitches and he needs to get his concentration back. He did not score twice out of the 4 innings he played and ensured Team India was on the back foot right from the word go.

Dinesh Karthik
2.5

Had a poor tour with the bat, but his keeping was never a question mark. He broke into the Test side in absence of Saha, and a superlative performance for KKR as a batsman. But after the tour, it is clear his days are numbered and Team India might be looking at other options like Rishabh Pant or even KS Bharat should Wriddhiman Saha hang up his boots. He might be in the frame for the limited overs cricket, but his test career is virtually over.