The primary Test at Headingley saw England draw first blood within the five-Test series against India in an exhilarating opening salvo.
From the 1,673 runs aggregated (the very best for any Test match between the 2 sides) to England’s second-highest ever successful run chase of 371, there have been records and statistics aplenty.
For the visitors, nonetheless, Headingley’s blockbuster proved to be a steep learning curve for a new-look side looking for to embrace a brave latest world following the retirements of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Ahead of the second Test at Edgbaston, Mohan Harihar highlights five things India must do to level the series.
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India’s fielders cannot let game slip through their fingers
The old adage of ‘catches win matches’ could also be one among cricket’s overcooked clichés, but when ever there was a time to heed its warning, it’s now.
Across the Test, India’s eight dropped catches – predominantly within the slip and gully regions – cost them 250 runs.
Yashasvi Jaiswal – who delighted in his first outing in England with the bat, striking a serene century on day one – didn’t capture that very same spark in the sphere dropping 4 catches himself.
The performance was poles other than their usual high standards as a team, one which boasts the very best catch efficiency within the slip and gully regions amongst Test nations since 2023 (80.6%).
India’s fledgling cordon heralds latest beginnings within the absence of familiar faces (and hands). And as is usually the case with the dawn of a brand new era, growing pains are inevitable.
It’s going to take time for coach Gautam Gambhir to allocate and decide on specific roles for the brand new crop of talent.
For the players themselves, they’ll need to regulate to their latest responsibilities and construct ‘catching chemistry’ with each other within the cordon.
That said, in a game of high quality margins – made finer for the bowlers on flat pitches – India can have to swiftly move up this learning curve.
Backing your best XI for the conditions
India’s team composition at Headingley was some extent of contention from the moment the coin got here down on the toss.
The number of Shardul Thakur as an insurance batting pick at number 8 proved a swing and a miss, and his meagre match contribution of 16 overs (out of a complete of 182.4 overs) vindicated the feelings of his sceptics.
Passing judgement on Thakur’s overall impact at Headingley, particularly with the ball, is difficult given his overall paltry workload.
For instance, his back-to-back wickets of Ben Duckett and Harry Brook on the ultimate day provided a glimpse as to why Thakur is considered India’s ‘golden arm’.
Subsequently, should captain Shubman Gill have entrusted him with more responsibility once he was confirmed within the playing XI?
Leading into the sport the controversy was which way India would go on what was already expected to be a flat batting surface.
An additional seam-bowling all-rounder (Thakur or Nitish Kumar Reddy) seemed logical given the historical context of playing in England.
Conversely, a second spinner in the shape of Kuldeep Yadav or Washington Sundar can have been the optimal pick given the present landscape of Test cricket in England since June 2022.
Because the Test unfolded, there was growing support for wrist spinner, Yadav, and the skills he could have offered Gill.
His command of the ball as a classical wrist spinner and skill to beat each edges of the bat – that too at fluctuating air speeds and ball paths – could have dragged India over the road on the ultimate day where the pitch showed some signs of turn and uneven bounce.
Ravindra Jadeja, the visitors’ preferred spinner on tours to SENA, looked a one-trick pony within the fourth innings.
Moreover, his returns in his last 4 Tests – including three in Australia – hint at an overall dip in penetration and prowess away from home (five wickets from 110 overs at a mean of 78.00).
Gambhir and Gill face a range conundrum. No matter whether or not they stick or twist, they need to back who they pick.
Time for Gill to stamp his authority on the sphere
Captaincy is a burden that weighs heavy on the shoulders of even probably the most seasoned campaigner.
For Gill, who follows within the footsteps of Kohli and Sharma, the burden weighs just that little bit heavier.
Consequently, one could excuse him for the shortage of overt aggression or tactical shrewdness – hallmarks of Gill’s most up-to-date predecessors – in his first outing.
Speaking on Gill’s Test-captaincy debut, ex-England captain Nasser Hussain stated: “I assumed I saw someone just finding his way, truthfully.
“I assumed he followed the ball rather a lot. I assumed he was reactive versus proactive.”
Hopefully for India’s young leader, Headingley serves because the catalyst for him to marshal his troops to the beat of his own drum, and fewer by committee, because the series progresses.
There’s little doubt he possesses the flicker for leadership; that is old news for fans of The Gujarat Titans within the Indian Premier League.
But over the course of 5 days, five Tests and on pitches cut from the identical cloth as Headingley, Gill must change into more assured of himself and his plans on the sphere before the actual fact.
Moreover, somewhat peek at how his opposite number, Ben Stokes, manipulates and manufactures fielding positions to his advantage on unresponsive surfaces wouldn’t go amiss.
Get in and go big
In the course of the first Test, India’s batting young guns racked up five individual centuries.
Jasiwal (101), Rishabh Pant (134 and 118), KL Rahul (137) and Gill (147) all stroked their approach to entertaining and aesthetically pleasing innings which, on every other surface, can be almost guaranteed to be match-winning.
As a substitute, India found themselves a part of an unwanted record – the primary team to lose a Test match after scoring five individual tons of.
It was a reminder to India’s next generation that after you get in, go big.
Home surfaces within the Bazball era are a batter’s joyful place. Because of this, scores of 100-140 are comparable to a hard-earned 40-80 on every other pitch.
At Headingley, India had multiple probabilities with the blade, in each innings, to bat the hosts out of sight.
Through a mixture of persistent bowling from England and excitable batting from India, Gill’s men rarely left England’s sights.
It’s value noting the identical was true of England who also fell into the same trap.
Of their first innings Ollie Pope and Harry Brook lost their wickets on 106 and 99, respectively, to rash strokes at inopportune times to maintain India within the hunt.
For India, this mindset becomes imperative given the limited abilities of their lower-order batters; the proof was within the pudding with collapses of 7-41 and 6-31.
Much, subsequently, is left to India’s top seven – the bonafide batters on this team – to attain the vital runs for his or her bowlers to work with.
Runs from numbers eight to 11 are a welcome bonus.
Bowling as a unit
Arguably the most important talking point throughout the Headingley Test was Jasprit Bumrah.
His undeniable resourcefulness means the primary Test bowler holds all of the aces for India, an exceedingly problematic quandary the team faces.
Claiming 5-83 in the primary innings at Headingley, a spell that was fitting of his stature, he demonstrated the chasm between his offerings and people of his team-mates (5-356).
When a player of Bumrah’s brilliance hits, which tends to be often, numerous cracks are papered over. But because the fourth innings showed, even India’s maverick is human.
The ultimate act of the Headingley thriller revealed that irrespective of how precious a commodity Bumrah is, the team cannot solely depend on him to each create pressure and take wickets.
If India have one eye on keeping him fresh and up for selection for so long as possible on this series, the opposite bowlers must come to his aid in their very own unique ways.
Nobody expects the remainder to match Bumrah’s gifts, as he’s the anomaly.
With some tender loving care from captain Gill and coach Gambhir, and a carousel of enterprising fields and bowling plans to cycle through against what has been dubbed ‘Bazball with brains’, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and company can stand to be legitimate threats in their very own right.
Most significantly, India needs a bowling unit, and not only a bowler, to win.
By Mohan Harihar
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