Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey

How England missed a huge opportunity in India | A look at how England missed a significant opportunity to beat India in India

The talk of pitches dominated the middle part of the four-match Test series, but England missed a significant opportunity. Joe Root’s side rightly needed to look at rotation given the mammoth year they have in front of them, but an opportunity beckoned for this side still looking to make a strong mark in Test cricket.

Conditions were tough, but when are they ever easy in India? England, who performed well in Sri Lanka, started their India tour in the best possible fashion. They got the best of the conditions in the first Test in Chennai, but the missed opportunity lies in the fact that they also got the best of the conditions in the third and fourth Tests respectively, only to blow it through a mixture of poor and tentative decision making.

A Joe Root double-century and James Anderson masterclass represented happy days for England, but that was all she wrote for this series. What must have been most alarming from England fan’s perspective was the meek surrender of England’s batsmen, particularly on the final day of the series, with very few batsmen willing to play with the mental fortitude required to succeed against such accurate and relentless bowling in Indian conditions.

Pitch blaming or accountability? How England move forward

Many England pundits, led by Michael Vaughan, were enraged at the pitches for the second and third Test matches. This was particularly surprising given that such pitches bring the opposition into the game. Australia in Pune in 2017 and the wicket-taking prowess of Jack Leach, among other examples, show that such surfaces actually come with a risk from an Indian perspective.

Especially when they’re already 1-0 down, knowing that another defeat will demolish their World Test Championship Final hopes.

England had the luxury of batting first three times out of four in this series. In fact, Kevin Pietersen tweeted about how important the toss was in the opening two Tests. And, when you have pitches that are turning big from day one, with the ball going through the top of the surface, it represents an opportunity when you get the chance to bat first.

Pietersen hit the nail on the head in his assessment, highlighting just why he was such a brilliant player in his day.

‘If Chris Silverwood is now starting to complain and moan about the pitch,’ said Pietersen, ‘if the head coach is going to moan and complain, that is as defeatist an attitude as I have ever heard of. He should wind his neck in. If you point your finger at someone else, four fingers point back at you and that’s what England need to remember.

‘If it was me after this Test match, as an England player I would say, “You know what, I played badly, I have got a week now to try and play and practise as best as I can so that we can try and win the next Test match. Because winning the next Test match and winning two Test matches in India and drawing the series is a damned good feat”.

If you get 250 on the board, you are in a magnificent position all of a sudden.

Instead, England were threatened. Their mental game was all over the place. Straight balls seemed unplayable, as England were petrified of deliveries beating their outside edge. In India, the golden rule is to protect your stumps, i.e. let the ball go past the outside edge rather than inside edge. The opposite rule seemed to apply to England.

As was the case in the second Test at Chennai, a lot was made of the pitch for the third Test in Ahmedabad, the shortest since World War II. However, how many of the wickets that fell were actually caused by the pitch itself?

Hint: Not many.

In fact, 12 of the 19 wickets that fell to India’s spinners were straight balls. Numerous others that fell to turning deliveries were ‘hit-and-hope’ shots by the lower order in the hope of getting some quick and priceless runs.

This theory was then proved right in the final Test, as horrendous England batting in both innings reflected a side shot on confidence and any will to succeed. Straight deliveries were again their enemy, even on a pitch with significantly less turn than that of the third Test. After Joe Root struck a magnificent double-century in the opening game, England then crossed 200 just once for the remainder of the series. A sorry story.

Lack of effective planning and questionable team selections

Unlike the patience of Alastair Cook and flamboyance of Kevin Pietersen nine years ago on England’s successful tour of India, England lacked a clear game plan with the bat this time around.

Batsmen were indecisive with their footwork and constantly playing for turn, which was recipe for disaster in what looked like favourable outcomes for England: three toss wins out of four in spin-friendly conditions.

What also hurt England was their indecisiveness in their team selections. Their decision to play three specialist seamers plus Ben Stokes for the third Test was a grave misread of the pitch, choosing a team for the pink ball rather than the 22 yards. Then, in the fourth, England overcompensated by picking just one specialist seamer – 38-year old James Anderson, to be partnered with Ben Stokes, who hadn’t done much bowling owing to a shoulder complaint.

Such a strategy brings such risk in the Ahmedabad heat. And, such a strategy brings even more risk when you have Dom Bess in your attack – a bowler that Joe Root struggles to trust. In fact, Bess was dropped after the first Test, despite taking wickets, owing to his lack of control. So, to play him in such an undermanned attack is not only asking too much of Bess, but it is sheer lunacy and forces you to take every inch of energy out of Anderson, Stokes and Leach.

With every full toss that Bess delivered and every blow handed by Pant and Sundar, the realisation became even more clear that the visiting side got things horribly wrong.

To be clear, a rotation policy is understandable. In fact, it is necessary in a year of ridiculous scheduling. England have already played five of 17 Tests in a year that includes the IPL, T20 World Cup, a full Test season at home and then the Ashes.

As Australia found out, this India side is a remarkable one, with the potential to dominate world cricket over the next 5-10 years. However, as a challenger in India’s backyard, players should be held more accountable. Many criticised the pitches, but, the bigger picture is that if you get the chance to bat first on such pitches, especially when you’ve got a foothold in the series, it is an opportunity that great players of the past would have grabbed with both hands.

For this England side, they’ve got a long way to go to get there.