Improving slip catching is tricky because none of the players in current 11 apart from maybe Rahane are natural at slip catching. We have literally tried everyone at slip but nothing seems to be working. We have tried Vijay, Dhawan, Kohli, Jadeja, Ashwin, Rahul. Even though Jadeja is a good fielder in general, he has dropped very easy catches in slips. Same goes for every other name that I have mentioned in there. It's almost like a 50-5-0 chance when the catch goes to our slip cordon. They might catch one but you are pretty sure they are going to miss at least a couple after that. England is probably the most difficult place if you want to improve on the slip catching simply because ball wobbles even after it has passed the bat.
Removing tail enders is another aspect where India has often struggled in the past and it has probably cost us this match. I do know that Sam Curran can bat but when you have removed their 7 batsmen for 87 runs, you have to be ruthless and take the rest of the wickets quickly. One change that can help India with this is inclusion of Bumrah. Again, this is very harsh on Umesh since he hasn't been given a consistent go for quite some time now but he seems to be the only candidate who has to go out if Bumrah does come in for the send match. Bumrah bowling in partnership with Ashwin is probably the best combo I can think about to bowl to the tail enders.
On rest of the batsmen apart from Kohli, they have to adapt pretty quickly if we want to win the series. Murli Vijay has been pretty poor apart from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka series. He struggled in home series against Australia and also didn't do well in South Africa. Shikhar Dhawan is just not a test player and sooner the team management realises this, the better is for the team. However, the replacement for him in Cheteshwar Pujara hasn't been doing any great either. Yes he is proper test batsmen but has struggled to get going in county cricket. If he has struggled in county cricket, he is more than likely to struggle against this bowling line-up of England. KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane are two players who are all conditions players. Rahul has however struggled to get going after that brilliant century in T20 game. He has to get over the nerves and start performing because looking at this team management, his chances will be very limited if he doesn't perform. Since DK won us that final against Bangladesh with six, he has looked a completely different player to me. He looked like a guy who knew exactly what he was doing with a solid temperament. Even in IPL, he looked very confident while batting. However, I saw old DK in both the inning that he played. He looked fidgety like he has been in the past. It is understandable that he was nervous since he was playing test cricket after such a long time. Just like KL Rahul, he needs to do better and that too pretty soon as Pant is waiting to grab his chance. Basically this is another case of players failing to adapt to different conditions. Also another remainder for BCCI to organize more practice matches before the start of such a big test series.
Forgot to add about Hardik. He looked different in the second inning. He was clearly trying to mirror Kohli by standing well outside the crease and did try pretty hard to fight it out when Kohli was batting. I am not really sure what team we are going to go with in the 2nd test but if there is one player who showed some sign of improvement, it was Hardik. At least he was willing to change his technique midway through the game.
