Finding Root cause of England defeat in third Test

When England batsmen took strike on the morning of the third day of the third Test, they were 207/2, just 238 runs adrift of India with one of their most successful batsmen, Joe Root, at the crease along with centurion Ben Duckett.

There was always a palpable feeling that, on the flat Niranjan Shah Stadium pitch – the stadium was earlier called Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, the match would meander to a draw. England would make 400-plus, maybe around 450 and bat until the end of third day or morning of fourth day. India will then have to bat cautiously, to ensure they don’t lose early wickets, into Day 5 before either getting all out or declaring.  

That would leave England with less than a day to bat.

But then cricket is a game of uncertainties.

It was a moment that exposed the overt reliance of England batsmen on Bazball, changing the complexion of the game.

Root had started the day well adding 17 with Duckett and bringing England 221 behind India. He then attempted a reverse scoop over third man off the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah. He couldn’t get the elevation and the ball went straight to slip fielder Yashasvi Jaiswal.

England then lost Jonny Bairstow for a duck to become 224/4. Suddenly, England were probably thinking of just ensuring a lead of inside 100. This was so different from when the day had started and they were probably eyeing matching India’s score.

Duckett fell too.

Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes added 39 to take England to 299/5 and ensure that they were in with some hope to stretch India but then at the stroke of lunch, Stokes holed out to long-on in a moment of rush of blood.

England, having lost the initiative once on the first day after letting India get from 33/3 to 445 in first innings, again lost the initiative and handed India the big advantage. They folded for 314, allowing India a lead of 131.  

The lead was enough to boost Indian batsmen’s morale and make England bowlers’ shoulders droop.  

Jasiwal clobbered the bowling to get to double century (214 not out) on either side of retiring hurt, Shubman Gill made 91 and Sarfaraz Khan scored 68 not out adding to his fifty (62) in first innings.

India declared on fourth day afternoon at 434/4, giving England a target of 557 runs. It was too much for the visitors and England were shot out for 122.

Ravindra Jadeja won the Player of the Match Award for his 7/92 (2/51 & 5/41) and his century (112) in first innings. Rohit Sharma too had scored a century in first essay (131).

India, despite having injury concerns and forced to field a young brigade, have shown grit and commendable skillfulness in the Test.

But England have also allowed India to grab initiative. Not just here, but in Visakhapatnam too.

Root has epitomised their failure. He has collected only 77 runs in three Tests at an average of 12.83.

On a good Rajkot pitch, he had the chance to get back to form. But he didn’t.

Root has been the best player of spin bowling in the world for some time alongside Steve Smith, the two are better than even the Indians. Yet he has failed in this series.

Perhaps, this failure was building up.

Root was known to score big playing conventionally but ever since England adopted the Bazball, his consistency has gone down a bit.

Yes, Bazball had helped the likes of Duckett and Zak Crawley and Bairstow among others.

But Root was already good, technically strong and sound.

Why would you want to give up a method that has fetched you over 10,000 runs (we are talking about his numbers before Bazball). Why would you want to use that method on pitches where the older ball doesn’t fly or move quickly as much as in England, Australia, South Africa or even Pakistan.  Someone needs to ask Root that. Maybe Brendon McCullum.  

Some records from the third Test match at Rajkot:

Yashasvi Jaiswal became only the third Indian batsman to score back-to-back double centuries. The 22-year-old scored 209 in second Test Visakhapatnam and then followed it up with 214 not out here. He joins Vinod Kambli and Virat Kohli. Kambli scored 224 against England in Mumbai (then Bombay) in February, 1993; and 227 against Zimbabwe in Delhi in March, 1993. Kohli made 213 vs Sri Lanka in Nagpur in November, 2017; and 243 again versus Sri Lanka in Delhi in December, 2017.

Sarfaraz Khan became the fourth Indian batsman to score fifties in both innings of his debut Test. Dilawar Hussain was the first Indian batsman to do so. The wicketkeeper-batsman did it in January, 1934 against England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, making 59 and 57. Sunil Gavaskar made 65 and 67 not out on debut in March 1971 against West Indies in Port-of-Spain. Shreyas Iyer made 105 and 65 on debut against New Zealand in Kanpur in November, 2021. It should be noted that three of the batsmen are from Mumbai. Dilawar Hussain is the only non-Mumbai batsman in the list. He was from Lahore as India wasn’t partitioned then.

R Ashwin, who had to fly after Day 1 to attend to family emergency, reached 500 wickets in Test match cricket. He is the second Indian after Anil Kumble and the ninth bowler overall to get to 500. He is now behind Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708), James Anderson (696), Anil Kumble (619), Stuart Broad (604), Glenn McGrath (563), Courtney Walsh (519), and Nathan Lyon (517) in top wicket-takers’ list.

Ravindra Jadeja took a five-wicket haul in an innings and scored a century in the same Test for the second time in his career. He had achieved this feat earlier, against Sri Lanka in Mohali in 2022.

Cricket, India, England, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Ben Stokes, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Rajkot