England just required thirty runs at this point in the 79th over, and India’s only chance of survival was to make it to the second new ball. Shardul Thakur needed to hang onto two balls. With the ball instead of the bat. Only Jasprit Bumrah with a new Dukes in hand could pry open the chase if there was even the slightest crack in it.
In his maiden Test as captain, Shubman Gill gave Thakur a 7-2 off-side field, sending a strong message: shut one side down. With full force, Thakur bowled it on middle-stump after running up. After giving it a quick scan and locating the man in the deep, Root threw up his head in disappointment and proceeded to walk through for a single. Other than that, it was four. Thakur raised his head as well. Maybe he believed he could surprise the top-ranked batter by executing the double bluff.
There is still one ball to go. In case the ball stayed on the surface, Gill installed another catcher on the off-side for an uppish drive. Additional insurance. Nevertheless, Jamie Smith drove a short ball behind point for a boundary, piercing the field. The sequence was almost pointless in a game that had already lost its appeal. Nevertheless, it summed up exactly what India lacked in Leeds: control as well as penetration. In addition to Bumrah’s skill, their support group’s discipline and defensive edge may have turned a 371-run chase into a mountain rather than a sprint.
Long before Day 5, England should have been eliminated from the match, but India will regret the missed opportunities and batting meltdown that allowed them to stay in it. However, even at Headingley, 371 is still a lofty goal, especially with those accounted for. If you are unfamiliar with the rhythms of this terrain, defending on it will be a nightmare. Your angles are continuously pulled off-center by the outfield races and the slope, which runs from the Kirkstall Lane End down towards the pitch and back up from the Football Stand End.
Additionally, fast bowlers averaged 3.99 throughout the game, which is brisk but to be expected in this situation. Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur, India’s third and fourth seamers, respectively, went at 6.28 and 5.56. Even though Krishna finished with as many wickets as Bumrah, he never seemed to be able to exert the same amount of control, particularly in the first innings when his short lengths made it easy for England’s top order to line him up. Thakur didn’t stop the flow or generate pressure until a fleeting post-Tea flare on the last day when he got out of Duckett and Brook in the same over.
The issue is not brand-new. With Thakur and Mohammed Siraj as their replacement bowlers, India defended 378 in their final Test match in England, Edgbaston 2022. In the second innings, Siraj and Thakur combined for 26 overs and gave up at 6.26, but England arrived with time and wickets to spare. It’s instructive to compare that to the Test held at The Oval in 2021 right before it.
The Indian attack’s control was the reason why the openers took 40 overs to add 100 in a chase of 368, even for an England team from before the Bazalball era. Thakur went at 2.75 to the over himself. The ball was scuffed up just in time for Bumrah to unleash his spell of reverse-swing pandemonium after Jadeja worked on the rough outside the right-hander’s leg-stump.
Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill now have to sort it out. Can India still block the exits when there are no wickets falling, no air and nothing off the pitch?
When a Siraj or Bumrah spell is performed, there will be sections. As they did in Leeds, England will pick their times to attack, and seamers may have to settle with the routine: short extra-cover in place, short midwicket in too, and consistently the same nice length on off stump. Or ask the batter to reach or back off by bowling dry lines to a 7-2 field, wide outside off. Cricket is boring. Cricket is essential. Gill’s challenge was made worse by his change seamers being struck on both sides of the wicket, even if he was occasionally reactive in moving fielders to where the final boundary went in Leeds on the final.
Ishant Sharma’s capacity to absorb hours, dry up runs, and hold one end even when he wasn’t tearing up lineups was what made him such a key piece in India’s heyday of fast play. In a perceptive interview on Cricbuzz, then bowling coach Bharat Arun defended Mohammed Shami, who was criticised for not pitching it fuller in England to turn all those lovely plays-and-misses into edges and wickets. Arun contended that Shami’s discipline generated pressure that was used by others. It was a function, not a weakness, to beat the bat. He wasn’t going for the miracle ball that swung from leg-stump, so it indicated he was doing his job.
The aggregate experience of India’s fast bowling group, excluding Bumrah and Siraj, is 25 Test matches.
However, it took a couple of England tours for Ishant and Shami to develop into what they are today. They have a steep learning curve and will need to balance attack and defence without Bumrah’s leadership in at least two of the final four Test matches.
Gambhir stated, “These are still early days,” following the loss. “Experience is crucial while travelling to South Africa, England, or Australia. How will your bowlers improve if you start evaluating them after each Test match? What is the trajectory of the bowling attack? It’s crucial to consider experience while discussing statistics or facts.
“Looking at three or four other bowlers, you can see that they lack experience. However, they are of high quality. They are in this dressing room for that reason. And we will continue to support them. Because one-two isn’t the issue. The goal is to construct a fast bowling battery that will last for many years in service to India. We simply need to be more reliable, in my opinion.
The truth is that, despite having Bumrah in the starting lineup, India has now lost seven of their previous nine Test matches, including this one in England. They have a lot of lessons to learn, and if they want to change their luck, they will need to accelerate the learning curve.
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