Two things that cost India dear on tough England tour

LONDON: There’s suddenly a feel-good factor around this Indian team once again. KL Rahul and Risabh Pant, following their courageous effort, have been able to turn a narrative completely on its head. The words new India, determination, courage that get floated around by the team management are back in business, almost shutting out the bare truth that India have lost this series 4-1.
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There’s absolutely no doubt about the fact that Pant and Rahul were exceptional on the fifth day of the inconsequential fifth Test.But the question that still begs is ‘Where was this game till now?’ The batting, till this innings and the two at Nottingham, had failed miserably and the top-order’s ineptitude against the moving ball can’t be hidden by the shots by Rahul and Pant on Tuesday.
That opener Shikhar Dhawan has done virtually nothing in this series and was a sitting duck is something that the selectors should regard going forward. There’s a series against West Indies at home and Dhawan, if given a go, will score there. But will that solve India’s long-standing opening issue before travelling to Australia?
The other issue is the role of the coaching staff. Thrice, the coaching team of Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Bangar, Bharath Arun and R Sridhar messed up with the team combination. Cheteshwar Pujara and an extra spinner were sorely missed in a tight game in Birmingham, including Kuldeep Yadav on the seaming conditions of Lord’s made no sense while in Southampton, Ravindra Jadeja was not played as the extra spinning option. And that too with Ashwin coming back from an injury which restricted him a lot.

“I think he is an exceptional cricketer in all three departments. I think we would probably be reasonably happy that he only played one Test match,” England assistant coach Paul Fabrace said about Jadeja’s exclusion from the first four Tests. The England management’s assessment of the Jadeja situation and the fact that the left-armer got seven wickets and scored 86 in the first innings here, highlights the colossal decision-making errors of the team. “The decision-makers forgot that two wrongs don’t make one right,” ex-spinner Harbhajan Singh, told TOI, “Had it not been for the wrong decisions, India might have won the series.”
The most crucial element is the over dependence of this batting line-up on Virat Kohli. The odd Cheteshwar Pujara effort can’t be taken into consideration because it doesn’t tell the whole story. The Indian batting has completely hinged around Kohli and the moment the captain got out, the team was lost.
“India have to come out of this Kohli dependence mode if they are to make a fight of it going ahead in foreign conditions. The team that I played for under Sourav Ganguly or Rahul Dravid didn’t lose series in Australia and England and won in Pakistan. This team has lost in South Africa and England and they should learn from the mistakes here,” Harbhajan said.