If things were bad for India in this series so far, at the end of the first day’s play at the Oval in London, they got a lot worse. Cricket is often called the game of glorious uncertainties, but the result of this match, and for that matter, the result of the series is now certain. India would struggle to last 3 days here at London, and the series is more or decided 3-1 in England’s favor unless weather intervenes in a big way.
It’s particularly sad, being an Indian supporter to say this, but the grim reality must be stated. India has been horrible. Indian batsmen have looked like ducks out of water. Starting with Gautam Gambhir, a relic of the days when India used to be quite good. He was called as “rubbish” by the famous English commentator Geoffrey Boycott, and he only proved Boycott right by getting out first ball, edging James Anderson as though giving catching practice for the slip fielders. Gambhir has looked completely out of sorts and out of depth, and sadly he is just one of the many Indian batsmen to look like that.
Much is said about Cheteshwar Pujara being a replacement for Rahul “The Wall” Dravid, but on the evidence of his performance in this tour, even a 41-year old happily retired Dravid would have been ten times better as a batsman. Pujara has degenerated as the series has gone on, and he got out for another low score, once again beaten by a straight ball, this time by Stuart Broad.
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Virat Kohli, India’s acclaimed batting superstar has been a walking wicket in this series, and he got out in familiar fashion, not offering a shot to get out for another single digit score. While several reputations have taken a big fall in this series, Kohli’s fall is easily the steepest. World will never see Kohli the same way again.
Youngsters Chris Jordan and Chris Woakes ran through the Indian batting reducing them to 90 for 9. Ajinkya Rahane, Stuart Binny, Ravichandran Ashwin – all supposedly capable batsmen, but out here at the Oval, they only seemed to be in a hurry to get back to the safe environment of the pavilion, out of the sights of the prowling English bowlers.
It was only captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who stood firm and took India to a less abject score making 82 of the 148 runs eventually made by India, with only Ishant Sharma offering some help. Dhoni and Sharma added 58 runs for the last wicket, which was the best partnership by far of the Indian innings. At least, we had a couple of Indian batsmen who showed grit and determination and refused to be cowed down.
Indian selectors will have a real headache at the end of the tour, as normally, any side that plays so poorly has its captain sacked, but in the Indian side, Dhoni’s most obvious replacement, Virat Kohli, India’s vice-captain, has been so atrocious with the bat that it would be hard for him to justify a spot in the playing eleven, forget staking a claim for the captaincy. And there are no other players in the team who may be considered to be captaincy material. So it does look like Dhoni will hold on to the captain’s position for as long as he would like, as he is seemingly irreplaceable – which is not the most ideal situation for Indian cricket.
India looked completely demoralized when they came on to bowl and the duo of Alastair Cook and Sam Robson looked very comfortable, not playing a single false shot to take the England score to a very comfortable 62 for no loss. With a great weather in prospect today, England would want to press home their advantage and bat the entire day.
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