There were three men stationed deep on the leg-side boundary and Shreyas Iyer knew what was coming. The first ball from Stuart Broad was short into Iyer’s ribs which he toe-ended attempting a pull shot. England fielders all clapped as one. They knew Iyer was taking the bait.
India’s lead was 286 with six wickets in hand. The visitors were so ahead of the game and perhaps Iyer was entitled to have a positive approach. But after mistiming a couple of pull shots it seemed inevitable that a reckless dismissal was around the corner. A few overs later, Iyer perished trying to swat a short ball. It started a series of irresponsible dismissals.
Rishab Pant reverse swept Jack Leach to the slip. Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, all top-edged bouncers to one of the three men stationed on the boundary. To be fair, taking on the half tackers had yielded a few runs for the Indian tail-end batsmen in the first innings. But they were a bit more diligent on that occasion. On the fourth day, they were frantic and in a way careless. India had blown a golden opportunity to be ruthless. India had slipped from 190-4 to be all-out for 245.
This wasn’t the first time under the Rahul Dravid regime the team had wasted an opportunity to bury the opposition. In the second Test versus South Africa at Johannesburg in January, India led by 128 with eight wickets remaining in the third innings and collapsed to hand the home side a victory. At least on that occasion, the pitch had a bit of zing, at Edgbaston, it was a simple case of not putting a price on your wicket.
So did India take the position they were in for granted? After day four all fingers point to yes. The partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root was a great example for some of the youngsters in the Indian dressing room on how to respect the game of cricket.
Both Bairstow and Root have been given the license to entertain, but at no stage did they play casually. When the trap was set for Bairstow to hit Jadeja out of the rough outside his leg-stump, he resisted the temptation. This was a man that had scored three consecutive centuries recently. He could have easily slog-swept Jadeja and showcased the ‘bazball’ game plan, but he controlled his aggression. Root could have reverse swept Jadeja out of the rough, but he was patient enough to kick the ball away with his pad. Neither of them was reckless or over-attacking but still managed to score at 4.54 runs an over.
This was a lesson for the Indian batsmen. They could have taken a similar approach and grounded England into the dirt. Instead, they left the door open and England steamed through it without fear.
After play, India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour conceded the batting was not up to mark. “I’ll agree that we had a pretty ordinary day as far as batting is concerned. We were ahead in the game. We were in a position where we really could’ve batted them out of the game”
Rahul Dravid the Indian coach willing ruing the fact his team could well yet have let another golden opportunity slip. This was not about technical deficiencies or outstanding bowling by the opponent. This was a case of ill-discipline batting and believing the job was already done.
The last hour was the most damning for India. The fielders started to visualise the mistakes they had made earlier in the day as they watched Root and Bairstow take England close towards the target with a calculative and risk-averse approach.
Maybe it was all this discussion about England’s hell for leather approach that led to the batsmen believing a score in excess of 350 would be more than enough. England would make the mistake of over-attacking and perish on day four pitch. But instead, it was the England batsmen who showcased how to bat with caution, but still, be ruthless at the same time.
The likes of Iyer and Gill should imprint Root and Bairstow’s innings in their memory bank. Perhaps they had already started to as England moved closer to victory. It was a lesson on treating the game with respect, staying in the present and putting a high price on your wicket in each innings.
The other question is did India miss a trick with the ball? Possibly, but they do have day five to redeem themselves. The batsmen don’t. If India lose the Test match the batsmen must take a fair chunk of the blame.
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