Very good series to watch if you neutral cricket fan. Apart from Lord's, all the matches were very competitive and fun to watch. Of course it's disappointing an an Indian fan to lose yet another test series overseas which we felt like we should have won. It kind of feels like South Africa series all over again. Even in that series, bowlers were outstanding, Virat was the standout batsmen and others batsmen failed which means we ended up on the losing side.
I will start with the openers. Dhawan is not a test match player and any cricket fan will know this by now. Selectors and team management must move on from Dhawan just like they did with Rohit. This thing of making him Sehwag 2.0 is jut not working and I think it's time to give someone like Prithvi Shaw a chance. We can still keep Dhawan for limited overs where he has actually done well. However, I don't want to see him in Indian test team anymore because he is just going to struggle as soon as we travel overseas. I really hope selectors don't give him a chance for that WI series other he will make a couple of hundred there and book his spot for Australia tour. Of course then to go on and repeat the same thing again. Even though KL Rahul did score a fine century today, he has been very disappointing on this tour. It did look like he was found out by those in coming deliveries. I have previously stated this as well that I do see him as an all format player. I think he can be a regular opener for India if he can become a little more consistent.
Going on to the middle order, Pujara is the rock of this Indian batting line-up. However, he too needs to be much more consistent that what he has been. That inning that he played in Southampton test match was Pujara at his best. If India wants to win a test series overseas, Pujara needs to play more innings like that at a consistent level. The team management and captain must give him security of his place in the team so that he doesn't feel any pressure from at least inside the dressing room. He is a proper test match player that we have and we must protect him in order to get the best out of him. The same can be applied to Rahane as well. Even though I felt that Rahane has been very poor in this series. Rahane is a confidence player and he must be down on confidence when he got dropped in South Africa only to come back and contribute to India's win in the last match of that series. What I saw in this series from him was a shadow of the batsman that we saw in that 2014 England series. He got out at crucial stages playing false shots time and time again. Both Pujara and Rahane are very integral part of this Indian test team and they should be given confidence by the team management and the captain that they will be there throughout a series. However, in response both Pujara and Rahane needs to perform to maintain the confidence that the captain has shown in them. I don't think I need to say much about Virat Kohli because he has been the only shining light in our batting on this tour.
Number 6 is very awkward spot right now. Even though I do believe Hardik is the x-facotr player that we need at this spot, he hasn't helped his case much throughout this series. When he is on song, he has the ability to win a game on his own like he did in that Trent Bridge match. However, those performances are few and far in between and consistency is not there as of yet. On some days, he looks outstanding and on the others, he hardly looks like an International cricketer. Hanuma Vihari did alright in his first match but I do think we will need that 5th bowling option when we travel to Australia. Vihari's spin bowling might not be very helpful on those wickets and Hardik right now seems to be the only other option to me.
Pant has I think bought himself some more time with the outstanding century that he scored today. Yes he has had tough time keeping but I feel he did his best for someone who is on their first tour of England as a keeper without any prior experiance. I do feel that he is someone who can be persisted with as he has age on his side and with experience, he will only get better. He is also one of those players who is an all-format player.
For the spinner's spot, I think Ashwin started this tour very well but since he got that hip injury in the 3rd test, it started to go wayward for him. I don't think he was 100% when he was picked for 4th test match but India still decided to go with him. Jadeja did alright in this test match but I would still go for Ashwin as the primary spinner come the Australia tour.
I can't the fast bowlers one bit as they all have been absolutely brilliant throughout the series. The only criticism they might get is that they have lacked that final blow and have allowed the tail enders to score a lot of runs. They need to learn how to close the innings once they have their opponent down for 90 for 6 or 100 for 7. In this series, we saw that the lower order of England scored some crucial runs which resulted in England winning 2 tests which we should have won. However, this is clearly the best fast bowling unit that we have had in our history and as a fan, we can just hope that they continue this performance when we travel to Australia.
My team for 1st WI test would be:
Shaw
Rahul
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Pant
Jadeja
Ashwin
Shami/
Ishant/Bhuvi
Bumrah
Reserve: Vihari, Pandya, Ishant/Bhuvi, Mayank
