Virat Kohli, not the only difference between India and England
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Over the past year we have seen India go on an unbeaten streak in Test cricket and through this process a number of players have taken giant strides, some well-known players along with some fresh faces. The most recent stint being against the English where the Europeans were thrashed 4-0.
Cricket being a team sport and it can never be just one player who is the difference between the winning team and the losing team. Agreed there is one big player that plays the leading role in the match but there are other players that contribute to a team’s performance too. In the convincing series win against England, Virat Kohli played his part scoring an incredible 655 runs at an average of 109.16 but there were other players that have made their presence felt
A player with the stature of Virat Kohli is expected to play well every time he steps onto the field and it is natural that he gets the attention for his exceptional performances. But there have been other players who have performed for India when the captain has failed. From the No.1 ranked Test
Sidelining the usual perception of Indian seam bowlers not performing in sub-continental conditions, we saw Indian seam bowlers picking up 22 wickets in this series. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav have been the pick of seam bowlers for India. With their tight lengths and disciplined bowling, the duo ensured that the English batsmen did not get runs flowing at the beginning of innings along with providing their team with crucial breakthroughs when things looked to heading England's way. The performance of these bowlers has helped in releasing some pressure from the spinners as India got early breakthroughs.Â
 © BCCIRavindra Jadeja and Ashwin were the go to spin bowlers for team India as they picked up 54 wickets between them in the 5 match series. Along with their spinning prowess, we have also seen them perform with the bat. Ashwin scored a total of 306 runs in 7 innings to go with his 28 wickets and Jadeja has scored 224 runs to with his 26 wickets. It is not just about Ashwin and Jadeja though as there have been useful contributions from Jayant Yadav too. He has proved to be a wicket taking bowler and also someone who can provide stability in the lower order. He got to his maiden Test century in only his 3rd Test where he was involved in a breathtaking 241-run partnership with Virat Kohli. With this innings, Jayant Yadav announced himself as the next
Virat Kohli is a batting superstar and it is hard to get past him when he performs the way he has been performing. However, this series has made us look beyond Virat Kohli in the batting department, each and every batsman has contributed in this series victory against England. From Openers to No. 9 batsmen, each of them has performed and given India the platform to go ahead and win the matches.Â
To start, the openers Murali Vijay, Parthiv Patel and KL Rahul have produced some quality performances throughout the series. Murali Vijay was the constant in the team through the series; scoring 2 centuries. He provided the much-needed platform for the middle order to take over. Parthiv Patel made a comeback into the team after 8 long years owing to the injury to Wriddhiman Saha, the regular man behind the wickets for India. He has proved the selectors right by scoring 2 fifties in the 3 innings as the opener. Scoring runs
 © BCCIAt number 3, India had Cheteshwar Pujara coming in and the Rajkot-born
Apart from the top order and lower order performances, there was one performance that stood out in this series. In the Chennai Test, Virat saw a rare failure but Karun Nair, who had averaged 8.5 before the match, came up with a special innings of 303 not out. His special performance ensured that India got a massive 1st innings lead and setup a win by an innings and 75 runs.
Virat
