India vs England | Takeaways : India’s left-arm pacer problem and King Kohli’s flawed masterclass
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Virat Kohli silenced the critics once and for all by scoring a majestic century despite suffering a lot of problems countering the moving ball at the start of his innings. However, the Indian batsman's inability to read Sam Curran and England’s flawed slip fielding made up for an interesting Day 2.
Left is not right for India
While facing a left-arm pacer, bowling from over the wicket, a right-handed batsman needs to open up the stance a bit more to have a complete view of the trajectory of the ball. Failing to do so, the batsman can only see the bowler from the corner of his eye, which can impair his
As a matter of fact, India doesn’t have a proper left-arm pacer since Zaheer Khan last played for the country in 2012, and thus India hasn’t had much practice time in the nets. Although they called up Jaydev Unadkat to the squad last year and even called up Arjun Tendulkar to the nets before the New Zealand series, nothing reaped any sort of dividends and Trent Boult, who took 10 wickets in six limited overs matches, was all over them. Today, Sam Curran, highly rated for taking the ball away, vindicated Ed Smith’s faith on him and bowled
While Murali Vijay couldn’t open his stance despite shuffling across the stumps quite a bit, KL Rahul was dismissed by a peach of a delivery. While that could still be forgiven, Shikhar Dhawan would definitely curse himself for playing to the wrong line. After edging twice in the match, and once in the same over, he attempted the wide outside the off-stump delivery to edge it to the third slip. There was absolute unnecessary shot to play and only Dhawan can explain the logic behind his shot selection.
Virat Kohli scores his first century, but totally unconvincing in the beginning
If one thing defines Virat Kohli the best, it is the eagerness to learn and adapt as fast as possible. He is cricket’s classical sculptor, ready to take on the bowlers at any given point in time with complete orthodoxy and magnificent control. After his failure in the last tour of England, he revamped his batting and became the best No. 4 batsman of the current era. However, the final frontier had to be conquered and Kohli is determined to do that.
After averaging a forgettable 13.5 in England before this Test, Kohli decided to bring about a wholesome change to his stance and made the crowd sit up and take notice. He basically stood outside the crease and shuffled across the stumps to counter James Anderson’s away-going deliveries and in the process, scored his first 50+ score in England. But, don’t be fool away by the number of runs. It was not a typical Kohli epoch rather a Kohli century of struggle and hard work.
In the process, Kohli edged as many as two times to the slip cordon - the same area that cost his wicket six times on the last tour. With Dawid Malan not being a natural slip fielder, he spilled both the chances and Kohli went on to score as many runs as he did today.
Nonetheless, taking nothing away from him, it was a brilliant
England’s slip fielders are spiritual brothers of their Indian counterparts
India’s concerns in the cordon are a huge problem that has been there since 2012. However, England gave India a run for the money in the slips as they missed as many as four catches. Watching them the way they approached the catches, one could be sure that the cordon of Alastair Cook, Dawid Malan, and Jos Buttler are not inspiring any confidence. This could be easily related to the one of Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, and Gary Ballance, who used to spill almost fifty percent of the chances that came their way.
Close-in catching, especially behind the stumps, increasingly began to come into focus in the Ashes Down Under in which Stuart Broad and James Anderson had to be content with the lesser number of wickets than they actually deserved. And the team repeated the same mistakes today as well and missed as many as four catches at the slips - the exact number of catches India dropped in the game. The four catches include two of none other than Virat Kohli, who edged twice and Malan dropped both of them. Hardik Pandya got a reprieve off a brilliant Ben Stokes delivery as Alastair Cook's buttery fingers could not hold on. Similarly, Shikhar Dhawan was at the receiving end of an edge off a Sam Curran outswinger, but that moved past the third slip before Dhawan giving an edge to the third slip only a ball later.
A performance of a lifetime by Virat Kohli may have taken the sheen of Curran’s efforts, but it has to be remembered that he has done an excellent job today and had the bowlers got more support from their slip fielders, who knows, they might have enjoyed a lead of almost 150 runs.
