India’s tail and its missing sting

Every defeat does leave a hollow feeling, but the Headingley loss against England is certain to sting this young, transitioning Indian team. It was a game they were well on course to dominate, both in the first and second innings, but callous errors saw them hand a window of opportunity for their rivals, who simply gatecrashed through it to post five-wicket victory.

Failure of the middle and lower order to build on the strong foundation laid out by the top-order, five dropped catches, the inability of the back-up bowling attack to hit consistent lines and lengths and create pressure on the final day where England chased down a target of 371, the lack of energy when the chips were down… the reasons are aplenty for the management to address.

One of them that is certain to rankle head coach Gautam Gambhir is the inability of the lower-middle order and bowlers to contribute with the bat. Take the Headingley Test for example. The final three batters, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, were only able to aggregate just five runs across two innings as England bowlers mopped up the tail in a blink of an eye.

In the first innings, India lost six wickets for 24 runs to settle for 471 from a strong 430/3. On the other hand, England’s last six batters together gathered 112 runs, which helped them keep their deficit to just six runs.

In the second, India were cruising at 333/4 and looked set for a total of 400. But sorry tale of tail repeated and the visitors lost last six wickets for 31 runs to be dismissed for 364 that eventually proved inadequate.

No one is asking the bowlers to score big runs, but handy contributions from them, like even 10s or 20s, will not only swell the team’s total but also help eat into precious time. Just look at England where N0. 8 Brydon Carse hit 22 off 23 balls and No. 9 Josh Tongue managed 11.

More than the dismissals, it’s the manner in which the India bowlers got out that is worrisome. It appeared as if they have no confidence in their batting as they just gave room and swung, handing the wickets on a platter to England bowlers. In fact, the tail not wagging enough to sting the opposition has become endemic since Gambhir took charge last July.

In the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy, barring a half-century from No. 8 Washington Sundar in the fourth game in Melbourne and a 22 from No. 9 Bumrah in the final game in Sydney, the tail struggled to make an impact as compared to the Australians, where Pat Cummins (159 runs), Mitchell Starc (97) and Nathan Lyon (72) used their bat good effect.

“It’s not that they were not applying themselves,” reasoned Gambhir, defending his bowlers at the post-match press conference here on Tuesday. “Sometimes people fail, and that’s okay. I know it is disappointing. More importantly, I think they are more disappointed than anyone. Because they knew that we had the opportunity (to score 600). If we could have scored 575 in the first innings, we could have dominated from there.

“It’s not that they are not working hard in the nets as well. Sometimes these things happen. Even the pure batters fail as well. So, hopefully, they learn. And hopefully, we can have better performances from our tail. And that is not the only reason why we lost the Test match, to be honest.”

England skipper Ben Stokes too felt knocking off India tail quickly played a part in their historic triumph. “There will be people who get the headlines here, but the way in which we were able to knock the Indian tail over very quickly on two occasions was also a massive reason why we were able to restrict them to a score that we definitely felt comfortable to be able to chase.”

India’s fast bowlers generally tend to get away in home conditions, at least in the last decade they did so, because of the impressive batting ability of their spinners — R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Both Ashwin and Jadeja have Test centuries, while Axar has four half-centuries, and the trio are more or less spinning all-rounders at home, giving the team an immense depth.

It’s overseas where India has a problem. They play just one spinner and three frontline pacers, which extends the tail. This puts the onus on the pacers to make whatever little impact they can with the bat too. It could, at times, be the difference between winning and losing and even drawing.