England have finished this Test series in India with a 3-1 defeat. That is better than most would have expected for a team with relatively ...
England have finished this Test series in India with a 3-1 defeat. That is better than most would have expected for a team with relatively few established players. For all the endless chatter about the Ashes, it is winning in India that is the final frontier for England teams. The issue for England is not the scoreline as much as the narrative that has been left behind. Having won the series proceeding this one in Sri Lanka, and after winning the first Test in Chennai, the drubbings that came in the final three Tests of this series are all the starker.
The truth is that England never really recovered from being completely outplayed on a turning pitch in the second Test and their thinking was muddled from then on. They picked a team full of seamers for the day/night Test on a surface where they should have played their spinners, then they picked all their spinners for the final Test when they should have had an extra seamer.
This failure to pick the right players when they had the chance probably didn’t make much difference in the day/night Test, such was the way the pitch and the behaviour of the ball that England were...
