It really was remarkable the way the Test series between India and England turned around. Joe Root and Co had achieved an impressive clean ...
It really was remarkable the way the Test series between India and England turned around. Joe Root and Co had achieved an impressive clean sweep in Sri Lanka earlier, they won the first Test in Chennai by 227 runs, they were full of confidence, and they also won two of the last three tosses against India. Yet, the scoreline at the end of it all suggests there was a massive gulf between the two teams.
India won the second Test by 317 runs, the third by 10 wickets, and the fourth by an innings and 25 runs. Despite the momentum England had gained at the end of the first Test in Chennai and all the promise they had shown, they hardly came close to avoiding defeat in the last three Tests.
This begs the question: Is the Indian team really that much better than England’s? Or, as coach Ravi Shastri pointed out at the end of the fourth Test, were India simply better at winning the crucial moments?
“The scoreline doesn’t reflect how close the series was,” said Shastri. “It’s like the series in England we lost 1-4 (in 2018). England had their moments this time and if they grabbed those we could have had a...
