England’s home series came to an abrupt end on Friday morning after the last minute cancellation of the fifth and final Test at Old Trafford.
The tour ends with India claiming a 2-1 lead after four Tests. England used a total of 18 players across those games, Yas Rana runs the rule over how those players performed.
Rory Burns: 5/10
183 runs @ 26.14, two fifties; HS: 61
A frustrating few Tests for Burns who struggled to take his early season form into the series. Four failures were accompanied by three knocks where he failed to kick on from good starts.
Dom Sibley: 2/10
57 runs @ 14.25, no fifties; HS: 28
Two difficult Tests at the start of the series brought about the end of Sibley’s stint in Joe Root’s side. He found scoring trickier than usual and the repetitive nature of his dismissals was a cause for concern. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get out of first gear, it was that it looked as if that was the only gear he possessed.
Haseeb Hameed: 5/10
140 runs @ 28, two fifties; HS: 68
It wasn’t quite the fairytale return followers of English cricket have long dreamed for. Hameed bounced back well after his golden duck at Lord’s, scoring a pair of strangely similar half-centuries in which he batted fluently in the evening session before getting himself into ruts the following morning.
Zak Crawley: 2/10
33 runs @ 16.50, no fifties; HS: 27
Dropped after the series opener where Crawley looked unlikely to recover his 2020 form. Looked too unsure around his off-stump for a top-order batsman in England.
Dawid Malan: 6/10
106 runs @ 35.33, one fifty; HS: 70
Confident and composed on his return at Headingley. Compact with a conventional technique, his addition was a breath of fresh air to the England top order. A century was there for the taking before his dismissal – a leg-side strangle – at Leeds.
Joe Root: 9.5/10
564 runs @ 94, three hundreds; one fifty; 180*
Simply majestic. All his moving parts were once again in sync and like the other members of the Fab Four at their best, looked immovable at times. Loses half a mark for that chaotic final morning at Lord’s, a passage of play that ultimately proved costly.
Jonny Bairstow: 4/10
184 runs @ 26.28, one fifty; HS: 57
A frustrating return for Bairstow. Looked in good touch earlier in the series but failed to build on encouraging starts – four times he fell between 29 and 37. He was vulnerable to the straight ball, though not as dramatically as in 2019.
Ollie Pope: 7/10
83 runs @ 41.50, one fifty; HS: 81
An encouraging return to the side it what turned out to be the final Test of the series – he looked close to the player who had English cricket purring at Port Elizabeth in early 2020.
Dan Lawrence: 3/10
25 runs @ 12.50, no fifties; HS: 25
Arguably hard done to be dropped one Test into the series given his 81 against New Zealand at Edgbaston just one Test before the India series. That said, there can’t be too many complaints with an average under 28 eight Tests into his international career.
Jos Buttler: 2/10
72 runs @ 14.40, no fifties; HS: 25
Arguably England’s most consistent batsman in the 2020 home summer, Buttler never really got going this series. One of a number of players coming in cold with very little recent first-class cricket behind him, he failed to reach 30 in all five of his trips to the crease.
Sam Curran: 2/10
74 runs @ 18.50, no fifties; HS: 32
Three wickets @ 79.33, no five-fors; BBI: 2-27
Ineffectual with bat and ball. At this point he is realistically not reliable enough with either discipline to bat in the top seven or be a fourth seamer, given the options at England’s disposal.
Moeen Ali: 5/10
83 runs @ 16.60, no fifties; HS: 35
Six wickets @ 49.83, no five-fors; BBI: 2-84
Bowled better than those numbers suggest, though he was too easy to get away at The Oval. His tame first innings dismissal in the fourth Test left the door ajar for India to get back into the Test.
Chris Woakes: 9/10
68 runs @ 34, one fifty; HS: 50
Seven wickets @ 19.71; no five-fors; BBI: 4-54
Superb in his first Test appearance in over a year, a significant upgrade on Curran who was fulfilling a similar role. One of England’s most important players in home Tests.
Ollie Robinson: 8/10
21 wickets @ 21.33, two five-fors; BBI: 5-65
Continued his fine start to international cricket and already looks undroppable in home Tests. The leading wicket-taker in the series, he makes bowling a far simpler art than it actually is.
Craig Overton: 6/10
Eight wickets @ 21, no five-fors; BBI: 3-14
Put in the best performance of his nascent Test career at Leeds, relentlessly hammering a good line and length. He was curiously under-bowled at The Oval but overall put in a solid account of himself.
Mark Wood: 7/10
Five wickets @ 28.40, no five-fors; BBI: 3-51
His showing at the second innings at Lord’s was arguably his best in home Tests, where prised out every member of India’s top three. In the absence of Jofra Archer, he has a huge role to play for England in the coming months.
Stuart Broad: 3/10
One wicket @ 88, no five-fors; BBI: 1-18
Injury restricted Broad to just the solitary outing where he was uncharacteristically expensive and only picked up one wicket.
James Anderson: 7/10
15 wickets @ 24.66, one five-for; BBI: 5-62
Brilliant in the first innings of the opening three Tests, consistently exposing the cracks in India’s surprisingly fragile middle-order. The drop-off in his second innings returns became a talking point as the series went on.
