India beat England by 434 runs at Rajkot, their biggest ever Test win, and England’s largest defeat for 90 years. Ben Gardner looks at what we learned from the mauling.
After two days, the game was even. India and England had traded blows in the first innings, with the hosts 445 a touch above par. Then Ben Duckett dazzled as England blitzed to stumps. Then came the news that R Ashwin would leave the camp for a family medical emergency.
But England’s chance evaporated as quickly as it appeared. Mohammed Siraj took four and Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav spun webs around England. Then came another Yashasvi Jaiswal double century, and then a batting performance right from the England-in-India bad-times playbook. It’s 2-1 with two to play. Here’s what we learned.
Jaiswal and Sarfaraz leave England’s spinners with nowhere to turn
Despite England’s collapse on day three, they still conceded their smallest first-innings deficit of the series. There was plenty of work to be done, and yet very quickly they were left chasing shadows and picking up the ball from beyond the rope time and again, listless as they have rarely been under Stokes. This was the result of a sublime performance from Yashasvi Jaiswal, who racked up his second double of the series, with Sarfaraz Khan providing sterling support. They treated England’s frontline spinners as if they had five caps between them, which, in fact, they do. Shreyas Iyer was supposed to be India’s spin dominator, but couldn’t be in this series. Rishabh Pant’s middle-order impetus has also been missed at times. But not here, and England had no answer to the two livewires.
Ben Duckett is a Bazball diamond
Before we get onto England’s bad, let’s focus on the good. Ben Duckett’s mesmerising century deserves not to be forgotten despite the capitulation that followed. It was an innings firmly in the Stokes-McCullum heritage, but it’s worth examining on its own terms too. In a way, it had been coming, Duckett passing 20 in each of his four innings on this tour. But there were still demons exorcised, with the opener’s first stint in the Test side cut short by R Ashwin in 2016, leading to a six-year exile which ended after he looked to England’s 2022 exploits and discovered a reason to trust in his own natural game. Ashwin was strangely held back here, but his reintroduction only served up another bowler for Duckett to feast on. He now averages 48 and strikes at 88 as a Test opener.
England need more from Root and to be ruthless
The second Test was described in some corners as a missed opportunity, but wasn’t really. England did well to restrict India despite stellar individual efforts in the hosts’ two batting efforts. In their own first dig, they were well and truly Bumrahed – no shame there – and they then made the second highest fourth innings score in India by any touring team. They didn’t do much wrong, and were beaten anyway.
This, on the other hand, was a game filled with ‘what if?’ moments, which is not something you can usually say about record defeats. Had Joe Root held onto Rohit Sharma at slip, India would have been four down on the first morning, and they squandered several more opportunities in the field. Then, having raced to 224-2 in reply, a succession of ill-advised or ill-executed attacking shots saw them collapse to 319 all out. England’s new approach has brought them rewards and shouldn’t be discarded altogether. But this needs to be an aberration rather than a regression, and they could do with scaling back on the rhetoric as well.
Chiefly culpable was Joe Root, the reverse-scoop his demise. Much has been made of whether Bazball is helping or hindering him, with his supporters pointing to an average of 50 under Stokes. But these should be Root’s richest years. He has had the best batting conditions of his career, is in his prime, no longer needs to worry about the captaincy, and, at last, has a functioning top three above him. Ticking along at his average level shouldn’t be satisfactory, even if that average level would be high for anyone else. The example of Kane Williamson should be an inspiration. Three tons in four knocks in the last couple of weeks make it an average of 78 since the Covid-19 pandemic, in which time he has made 11 centuries, including four doubles, and hasn’t once been dismissed between 50 and 100. It’s a lofty bar, but Root should consider himself capable of similar
India have rediscovered their mojo
India received a healthy dose of generosity from England on the third day, but they were devastating with what they were given. Already without several key players coming into the game, they were rocked overnight by the news that Ashwin had left the camp. They responded with the kind of performance they made routine in their peak years, running roughshod over England with ball and bat. In the first Test they were spooked by Ollie Pope and lacked conviction in the chase. In the second, even when well on top, England revelled in Shubman Gill giving them a 30 per cent chance. It looked as if Duckett had reopened those insecurities. Instead, India showed exactly why it has been 12 years since they’ve lost a home series.
The DRS discussion isn’t going away
Ben Stokes already wasn’t happy with ball-tracking’s appraisal of Zak Crawley’s lbw in the second Test: “I think the technology just got it wrong on this occasion. I think that’s fair to be able to say.” Ollie Pope’s lbw in the first innings at Rajkot had pundits and ex-pros grumbling. And when Crawley was sawn off again, Stokes had had enough, asking for clarification from the match referee. The graphic seemed to show the ball just missing the leg bail, with the explanation – that the numbers were right even if the image was wrong – not completely satisfactory. Stokes has insisted he’s not using it as an excuse, but it’s an issue that will continue to rumble on. A poor performance from Joel Wilson, who had five decisions overturned, did not help matters, and nor does the fact that the umpire’s call ledger – which Stokes has suggested are scrapped – slightly goes against England, with six such shot-down reviews to India’s three.
