India vs England | Takeaways: Bairstow’s adaptation problems and Hardik Pandya’s arrival
For the first time in the series, India found themselves in a winning position as the visitors ended with an effective lead of 292 runs at stumps on Day 2. For India, Hardik Pandya was the pick up the bowlers as his maiden Test fifer resulted in England being bundled out for 161 in the 1st innings.
Why start with Bumrah when you have Ishant
The best thing that the Farhan Akhtar-produced Web series “Inside Edge” did is that it made people aware that every team has an analyst, whose job is to analyze players’ strength and the opposition's weakness. Rohini Raghavan seemed fluid in her analysis for Mumbai Mavericks and I hope, SportsMechanics, BCCI’s new analysis partner, was well aware of their KRAs just the way Rohini did for Mavericks. The metaphor may sound a bit exaggerated, but the fact that Virat Kohli asked Jasprit Bumrah to share the new ball with Mohammed Shami was tad surprising. Especially, when Ishant had dismissed Alastair Cook for nine times in Test cricket in the past before this Test and not handing him the ball seemed to be a questionable call.Â
The move backfired immensely in the pre-lunch session as the duo of Shami and Bumrah failed to land the ball at the good length spots despite the presence of cloud cover. However, a course correction helped Virat Kohli what he desperately needed at that point - a wicket. When the Delhi bowler came into bowl, he immediately impressed by keeping a probing line and most importantly, made Cook uncomfortable once again by drawing him to commit two errors in a short while. While Cheteshwar Pujara failed to grab a catch at first slip, Rishabh Pant made no mistake with the second.
There is no doubt to the fact that Bumrah had proved himself with the new ball in South Africa, but the cliche “horses for courses” is there for a reason and bringing Ishant would have restricted India from conceding runs at a rate of 5 in the pre-lunch session.Â
Can Bairstow move to Test mode as well?
Almost six years ago, on 17th August 2012, England found themselves at 54-4 against South Africa in a contest they needed to win to restore their Number 1 rank and due to the absence of Kevin Pietersen, the contest had already half gone. But, a young man from Yorkshire, coming in on the back of a splendid ton for the England Lions, made a lasting impression. Jonny Bairstow, of course, is not just another player in England’s plans since then and went on to achieve bigger and grander things in his life.Â
He enjoyed a spectacular season in 2016 in which he scored as many as 1470 Test runs at an average of 58.80 and that just added to the fact that England’s stint with unstable keepers was all but done. But, if the last two years are anything to go by, Bairstow is suffering a major blow to his career at the moment. He averaged only 34.31 in 2017 and that just rose to 35.38 in 2018 so far.Â
One of the major reasons for Bairstow’s failure can be attributed to the way he approaches his game. Being primarily a limited-overs batsman now, he is applying the same nature to his Test batting as well in which the chances of making errors are more. Today, Kohli was lucky enough to get two bowlers who bowled with more variations than they have ever done in their career. While Ishant bowled those away-swingers with considerable ease, Bumrah nipped it back in, which kept the batsmen guessing. The edges were drawn and most importantly, India significantly reduced the chances of leg-side runs as well.Â
However, cover drives are always going to come with a price and chances of edging to the slips were always there. As a matter of fact, Ajinkya Rahane shelved his most potent shot in Test cricket yesterday and took the hard way to score the runs that he did, but Bairstow's overeagerness to play those flashy drives with hard hands and eventually, the same shot got him out. In Test cricket, you have to bat with more patience and this small price of patience can help you reach the level of stars.Â
Hardik Pandya - may not be a finished product, but better than many
Just ahead of the Trent Bridge Test, there were talks about leaving out Hardik Pandya for Ravindra Jadeja or at worse, Umesh Yadav. But one thing was conveniently forgotten. He was the second highest run-scorer for India in the series ahead of this Test and although he hadn’t done much with the ball, he showed signs of brilliance at some point and his selection for the Nottingham Test is a no-brainer.Â
To explain what Pandya adds to the team, one has to go beyond the statistical facts and dig deep in
While he has been perennially erratic as a bowler, you expect him to bowl few good balls on a single spell and today was just a day when he was going to do that more often. He kept on bowling more on the good length areas, just outside off. With the ball swinging, he proved all detractors wrong with five wickets in five overs.Â
Yes, I am not saying one performance can make up for everything, but the fact is India