Not just Jasprit Bumrah but Rahul Dravid and selectors are to blame for India’s failure to defend 377

At the end of the fourth day when England were 259 for 3 with both Root and Bairstow going strong, the batting coach Vikram Rathour maintained that India had lost the initiative by losing its last seven wickets for just 92 runs in the second innings. After the match, the head coach Dravid made the same point that India’s batting, especially in the second innings, had not been up to scratch. However, would things have been any different if India had scored 345 instead of 245 in the second innings and set a target of 478 instead of 378? If England could win the match by scoring 119 in the first session of the final day without losing any wickets, another 100 runs need not have been too much of a problem in the remaining two sessions.

India’s abject failure could have simply been one of a lack of intent. After England put up a 100-run opening partnership in the final innings and lost three quick wickets to reach 109, India should have tried to go for a win instead of asking its only spinner, the left-arm allrounder Jadeja, to bowl over the stumps and into the rough patches outside the leg-stump of the right-handed Root and Bairstow. Both the batsmen were beaten by Jadeja a few times but, since the ball pitched outside the leg-stump, they could not be given out LBW.

The expert TV commentators, Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Manjtekar and, especially, the former England ace off-spinner Graeme Swann, kept pointing out that an experienced spinner like Jadeja (with 242 wickets from 60 Tests, including 23 dismissals for 11 matches in England and a 4 for 17) was far more likely to dismiss Bairstow and Root if he bowled from around the stumps. However, of the 18.4 overs Jadeja bowled in the second innings, there was just one over from around the stumps towards the close of play on the fourth day and he was promptly taken off after that. It was almost as if Jadeja had been given the role of just restricting the batsmen by bowling a negative length, which, ultimately, did not work because India’s third and fourth seamers Siraj and Thakur were too inexperienced to trouble Root and Bairstow and kept leaking runs. There was also the problem that there was no fielder close-in on the offside and this made it possible for Root and Bairstow to just tap the ball and aggregate five to six runs an over without taking any risks.

Surely, the head coach Rahul Drabid could have intervened and advised the captain to ask Jadeja to attack the batsmen Root and Bairstow by bowling from around the wicket, especially when England had stumbled to 109 for 3 and with 269 runs more to get. There are media reports that Dravid was initially reluctant to accept the offer of succeeding Ravi Shastri as head coach. However, having taken on the responsibility, Dravid should assert himself more, especially since Bumrah was captaining India for the first time. Contrast that with the England coach Brendon McCullum’s proactive approach of signalling from the pavilion to his players how they should bowl short and dismiss Shreyas Iyer when he walked in to bat in the second innings. And McCullum should know Iyer’s weakness against the rising ball since he was the KKR coach when Shreyas was leading the team this IPL season.

What happened for long periods of play when Root and Bairstow were batting on the afternoon and evening of the fourth day and on the morning of the fifth day at Edgbaston was that there appeared to be no input from the bowling coach Paras Mhambrey even while the expert TV commentators kept wondering why India’s leading left-arm spinner Jadeja was not attacking and bowling from around the wicket instead of continuously going over the wicket while trying to hit the rough patches outside the leg-stump of the right-handed batsmen Root and Bairstow.

There was no consistency even in the placement of fielders in the vital slip-cordon. In the first innings, both Gill and Iyer had taken catches in the slips while standing next to

Kohli. However, in the second innings, when Bairstow and Root were consolidating, Gill and Iyer were posted in the deep while Hanuma Vihari, who had fielded at forward short-leg to Jadeja while wearing pads, was asked to stand in the slips next to Kohli. When Bairstow was just 14, he edged a Siraj delivery which went head-high to Vihari who could not take the catch, maybe because his mobility was restricted because of the pads he was wearing.

Surely, with Root and Bairstow being identified as the main batsmen before the one-off Test at Edgbaston, the head coach Dravid, the bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and the fielding coach T K Dilip should have had discussions well in advance on how the sole spinner Jadeja should attack and on the basic issues like field-placement and who should stand in the slips. There should not be an ad-hoc approach that, since Vihari was fielding at forward short-leg with pads on when Jadeja was bowling, it would be more convenient to ask Vihari to stand in the slips when the pacers were bowling and that too with the same pads on.

The captaincy came accidentally to Bumrah because first the vice-captain K L Rahul was injured and then the

Rohit Sharma tested positive for Covid. Given Bumrah’s inexperience and the fact that he was also the spearhead of the bowling attack, the coaching staff of Dravid, Mhambrey and Dilip should have provided the required input instead of letting the first-time skipper work it out for himself.

Finally, the selection of the team for the playing eleven could be faulted. The bowler in form was the very experienced Umesh Yadav who had not only taken six wickets in the fourth Test at the Oval which India won in August but had followed that up with a spirited performance in this summer’s IPL where Siraj was lacklustre. However, both the inexperienced Siraj and Thakur were preferred to Yadav. The lack of follow-up to Bumrah and Shami was demonstrated in England’s second innings when Root and Bairstow took Siraj and Thakur apart. There is also the query whether India missed a trick by not including Bhunveswar Kumar in the Test squad for the England tour. Granted, Kumar is injury-prone when it comes to a full series. However, since this was a one-off Test, Kumar’s ability to swing and seam the ball could have come in handy at Edgbaston.

The coaching staff headed by Dravid has to assert itself more. Opportunities like the one India lost at Edgbaston where the opposing team has to score 378 in the fourth innings do not come every day. As one of the world’s most aggressive opening batsmen Virender Sehwag put it, India’s bowling in the second innings was “totally spiritless”.