Team India has so far been outshined by the England team completely in the Rose Bowl Test. Be it batting or bowling, the English side have made a strong comeback into this game after their humiliating defeat at the Lord’s in the last test and their performance in this match will send a positive message in the opposition dressing room that things won’t be easy for them in this series.
After declaring their first innings for 569 runs, the English bowlers ensured that they never lost their grip on the match and kept on taking Indian wickets at regular intervals, which according to me has been the biggest difference in this Test match. Indian bowlers failed to take wickets regularly due to which there were three big partnerships from the home team’s batsmen whereas the English bowlers never gave any space to the Indian batsmen to settle down. What has been more disappointing in this game is the performance of the Indian top and middle order who looked clueless against the England bowlers. Whenever there was a slight swing and help from the wicket, Indian batsmen completely surrendered against them. Rohit Sharma’s shot off Mooen Ali to get out was the last thing India wanted in their innings. The young Indian batting guns have to consult and look up to someone like Rahul Dravid on how to convert their starts into big hundreds, as majority of the Indian batsmen have failed to do so in this series – be it Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara or Rohit Sharma.
India would now only hope that are able to avoid the follow on Day 4 of the Test match, otherwise they could well end up losing this Test.
