The Indian team will think long and hard about what went wrong in the Test series against England as they conceded it 3-1 with one Test to go.
India entered the series with their strongest ever pace bowling attack and despite the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah at the start of the series, had enough firepower to take 20 wickets relatively cheaply.
England won the second Test at Lord’s by an innings effectively inside two days while India bounced back in the third at Trent Bridge as they won by 203 runs. The series boiled down to two close games – the first Test in Birmingham and the fourth at Southampton. And this is where India’s growing problem came to the fore.
While India’s batting has become increasingly dependent on captain Virat Kohli to score runs in tough conditions, the team has also made it a habit of failing to chase down achievable targets in the fourth innings.
India in chases this year:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) September 2, 2018
Cape Town: Target 208 -- 135/10
Centurion: Target 287 -- 151/10
Edgbaston: Target 194 -- 162/10
Southampton: Target 245 -- 184/10#EngvInd
In the last five years, the team has squandered four golden opportunities to register wins away from home.
The first instance came in the 2015 Galle Test when India were set a target of 176 on a dry pitch. Sri Lanka, led by spin veteran Rangana Herath’s 7-48, bowled out India for just 112 as a 63-run loss ensued for the visitors.
Then against South Africa at the beginning of this year, the Indians were set a challenging target of 208 in the first Test in Cape Town.
However, the Indians fell well short of the target as they were bowled out for 135 with Vernon Philander picking up six wickets in the second innings.
The trend continued in the five-Test series in England. In the first Test in Birmingham, India were set a gettable target of 194 on a pitch that was still good enough to bat on. But they could only manage 162 as they fell 31 runs short of the target with Ben Stokes picking up four wickets.
And then in the fourth Test in Southampton with the series on the line, India were asked to score 245 to level the series but were dismissed for 184 with off-spinner Moeen Ali picking up four.
In the last five years, India have failed to chase down targets of less than 250 on four occasions. Pakistan and South Africa have failed to do it twice while Australia and West Indies have been unable to do so once.
It goes to show that while India might still be the No1 Test team in the world, they are simply unable to chase down any sort of fourth-innings target.
In fact, the last time India chased down a target of more than 100 outside Asia was in 2003 against Australia.
