England vs India: Five Reasons Why Jasprit Bumrah-Led Side Lost To Ben Stokes' Men At Edgbaston

England vs India: Five Reasons Why Jasprit Bumrah-Led Side Lost To Ben Stokes' Men At Edgbaston

England vs India, Edgbaston: 

The India team would be more than disappointed with the result of the Edgbaston Test where the visitors possibly won more sessions and were bossing the game for the most part of the Test match. With a lead of 132 runs, the visitors were in the driver’s seat till the second session of the third day’s play and suddenly from there on everything went downhill for the Indian side.

 

England vs India: Five Reasons Why Jasprit Bumrah-Led Side Lost To Ben Stokes' Men At Edgbaston

Here’s a look at five possible reasons why India lost the Edgbaston Test vs England:

 

1. Poor batting display: It would be fair to say that the batting let India down in the fifth Test. India were in all sorts of trouble in the first day of the Test and if it wasn’t for Rishabh Pant’s heroics with the bat and Ravindra Jadeja’s stubborn century, the match might have been over well before the fifth day. It wasn’t much different in the second innings either. Once again, the batting failed to come to the party. Cheteshwar Pujara did his job and Pant continued his good run with the bat in the second innings as well. But other than these two, there wasn’t much to talk about India’s batting. It was poor.
2. Defensive approach: India’s selection left a lot to be desired. Ravichandran Ashwin would have been an attacking option, at least more than Shardul Thakur and the India off-spinner is no mug with the bat either. There was enough reasons for India to go with Ashwin and leaving him out was a tactical blunder. It would given Jasprit Bumrah a bit more variety in the attack.
3. Defensive game plan: The only spinner India played in the Test match, Ravindra Jadeja was used in a very defensive manner. Coming over the wicket right away wasn’t the best move but to be fair to Jadeja, Joe Root must be given credit for the way he played the India spinner. Jadeja could have tried a few other things but he could never really get settled – for which the bulk of the credit should go to the England batters.
4. A defensive field set: The attacking approach that Shastri-Kohli had was missing. The field was well spread out and all Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root had to do was milk the bowling. With easy singles on offer, India could never really build the pressure that is required at the Test level to pick up wickets. To add to that, there were way too many boundary balls on offer. And Bairstow of all doesn’t need a second invitation.
5. Inconsitent bowling; The Indian bowlers looked out of ideas once Bairstow and Root started to go after them. It was as if they didn’t expect the England batters to come out all guns blazing. The openers set the tone and Bairstow and Root just carried on from there. There were not enough bouncers bowled, the off-stump line to both the right-handers were not consistent enough and every now and then the Indian bowlers kept drifting down the pads. At times, it was easy pickings for the English batters.
6. This is the third time in a row in overseas conditions, India have failed to defend a score. Twice in South Africa and now in England and in all the three matches, there was not enough pressure built by the bowlers and runs came in thick and fast for the opposition.