The dismal performance by Kohli and his company in the fourth test at Southampton has disheartened the Indian cricket fans. Despite India’s commendable performance in the third Test at Trent Bridge, the fourth Test at Southampton once again saw the visitors not capitalising on opportunities. Cheteshwar Pujara’s 132 in the first innings had raised hopes with India taking a slight lead of 27 runs after England were bowled out for 246. But given a target of 245 in the second innings, the Indian batting simply couldn’t step up and fell short by 60 runs.
The climate and the conditions of pitch in England will always favour the local teams, but a little more patience and application on the part of Indian batsmen would have changed the outcome. While England spinner Moeen Ali picked up four crucial wickets, including that of captain Virat Kohli, India's premier spinner R Ashwin could not get much purchase from the track. It calls for close scrutiny of the technique employed by Ashwin.
Ultimately, India haven’t been consistent throughout the series. It was only skipper Kohli who could be relied upon to put up a fight in tough situations. While the woes of India’s opening batting pair continue, the rest of the batting order’s lacklustre approach to playing the swinging ball- again Kohli was the only exception here- exposed the lack of preparation. That said, the Indian bowlers did impress with the likes of Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah using the English conditions well. But what was missing was overall team performance with all departments clicking over several Tests.
Having already gone down 3-1 in the five match series, the England tour will go down as another missed opportunity for India to improve its overseas record. As Kohli said, England were braver in tough situations while his teammates need to learn the art of crossing the finishing line. Even if Indians were able to tame the weather and win the fifth test, it is not going to change the outcome of the series. Kohli said that this team cannot be satisfied with just competing overseas and it has to learn the art of crossing the line and win tests in adverse conditions. When we come so close, there is an art of crossing the line as well, which we will have to learn. We have the ability, which is why we are getting close to a result. But when the pressure situation comes, how we react to it, is something we have to work on a bit, Kohli said.
England name squad for fifth Test
England selectors have named a 13-man squad for the fifth Specsavers Test match against India at Kia Oval starting on Friday September 7. Ollie Pope will play for Surrey in the first two days of their Specsavers County Championship Division One match against Essex at Chelmsford and will join the rest of the Test squad on Thursday morning.
England Test squad
Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain, Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jimmy Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Sam Curran (Surrey), Keaton Jennings (Lancashire), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)
