England suffered their first series defeat under the leadership of Ben Stokes and after escaping defeat with Bazball for seven consecutive series, they learned the hard way against India.
The hosts have taken an unassailable lead in the series and former Indian player Anil Kumble wants ben stokes and Brendon McCullum to look back at Bazball’s strategy. India sealed the series by winning the fourth Test which was played at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium in Ranchi.
Anil Kumble, while speaking to official broadcasters, said that the challenge for England was obvious here and India was not going to be easy for the Bazballers. He mentioned that India has not lost a home Test series since the last decade.
Anil Kumble feels that England’s middle order did not contribute well, including the likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and captain Ben Stokes. He also explained where England He failed the trick against India.
“Seeing the challenge when England came here was obvious. India is not going to be easy. Bazball, whatever you call it… but it won’t be easy to beat India at home. That is the reason why India has been so dominant over the years.”
“In the last decade, India has never lost a series at home. They knew they had to be different, but their bowling attack was not something they believed was capable of penetrating the Indian batting.” Anil Kumble said while speaking to the host broadcaster.
“Once they knew that some of the senior players would not be available, with an inexperienced line-up, they had a chance, but the senior batsmen did not contribute consistently in that middle order, including Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, and even Joe Root, apart of this test match, so that’s where I thought they missed a trick.”
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Anil Kumble cites the example of Shubman Gill to make his point clear about Bazball
“It’s nice to say ‘okay, this is how I hit.’ But you can’t do that all the time. Shubman Gill would have loved to pump every ball to hit a six off the spinner, and I am sure the thought process was there, the intention was there.”
“But you have to contain yourself. In Test match cricket, that’s what it is. It’s all about situations and that’s what Root did in Ranchi. No wonder he has been successful. So it’s something England will have to discuss and consider. Not only because of the aggressive approach but also because of the defense.” Anil Kumble added.
England won the toss and elected to bat first in Ranchi. They scored 353 in the first innings as Joe root He scored an unbeaten 122 off 274 balls. India, on the other hand, scored 307, compared to Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 73 (117) and Dhruv Jurel’s 90 (149). Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav spun their net to take England level at 145 in their second innings as both took figures of 5/51 and 4/15 respectively in the second innings.
India won their 17th consecutive Test series at home by defeating England 3-1, winning three in a row after losing the series opener in Hyderabad by 28 runs. The hosts won in Vizag by 106 runs, in Rajkot by a record 434 runs and in Ranchi by five wickets. The fifth and final Test of the series will be played at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala, starting March 7.
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