Kohli was personally brilliant at Edgbaston, as were Indian bowlers. But the batting and team selection left a lot of hanging questions
What a gripping test match, had it not been for youngster Sam Curran’s run-a-ball sixty-odd in the English second innings things could have been very different. Then again, had it not been for Virat Kohli’s heroics in the first innings, India could have been nursing a horrific innings defeat. All said and done, this was a great demonstration of test cricket and a test worthy of being England’s 1000th test match. However, four tests remain and the Indian cricket team and management have some serious questions to answer. While there is no doubt that Virat has shed some of the demons off his back when it comes to his batting, his aggregate of 200 runs being stunning in itself, the rest of India’s much vaunted batting line-up was disappointing to say the least. The question here is obvious, is this India’s best batting line-upij And Virat himself should remember, as he likely does, that this is a long-haul, one test does not a series make.
And while Ravi Ashwin and Ishant Sharma bowled fabulously on Day 3, the team management should ask whether it makes sense to play a second spinner outside the subcontinent. After all, with England and the rest of Europe sweltering in the most torrid summer in living memory, could English pitches dry out and create opportunities like those back homeij Far too many people back home were puzzled by some of the selection decisions taken before the first test, and in defeat, those voices have become louder. While it is true that every second Indian has an opinion on the Indian cricket team, in this case they are justified to a degree and some suspect, not without cause, that there is a degree of favouritism in the selection process. But Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri know that without success, or at least without evidence that the team did their best, there will be hell to pay among Indian fans. The worst thing about Edgbaston is that the Indian top order fell to the same mistakes that they always have, playing outside the off-stump and there was little or no application. Virat Kohli took over Rahul Dravid’s role from the last ill-fated tour of England but unless some hard questions are asked and some long hours spent in practice, this tour might end in the same sort of tears that the last one did.