Disastrous batting show

Team India came a cropper in the Lord’s Test. The Indian batsmen proved incapable of playing swing and seam bowling of the highest quality that the England team quicks served up in conditions distinctly amenable to that kind of showing featured by disconcerting movement. The contrast could not have been greater when the Indian fast bowlers came on to bowl and sprayed the ball around in the same kind of conditions before they put up a bit of a fight in reducing England to 89 for four in reply to India’s abysmal 107. It appeared then that a fight could be on as there had been in an intriguing first Test in which the result was open almost to the very end thanks to the skipper Virat Kohli’s brilliant, virtually singlehanded competence at the batting crease. What a fall there was to be from Edgbaston to Lord’s!

For the top-rated side in world cricket, Team India cannot be so brittle in certain conditions. They did come to terms with the challenge in South Africa where the ball bounces more than it moves, but only in winning a consolation Test after the series had been wrapped up. The point is Indian batsmen have proved far too vulnerable against the moving ball on the last three tours of England. The blame may lie on the amount of white ball cricket played these days in international cricket. Even so, Team India’s fortunes in Tests at home and away are too contrasted to be considered a good sign. Kohli was not fit enough to make a fight of it at Lord’s but virtually all 10 others in his team seemed incapable of a gritty show when the chips were down and the opposition bowlers were on top. Unless technique and temperament improve among this lot of batsmen, Team India should have no genuine claim to be the No. 1 Test side.