India and its woes: The Indian cricket team had one of their worst days in Test history as England toyed with them on the opening day of the Leeds Test match, lunging desperately to level the series. Even before they could realize that what had hit them, they had lost half of their side.
As Kohli managed to end his toss jinx to finally win it after six attempts, he took a decision to bat that left everyone stunned, especially considering the circumstances. The pitch looked very well set for the bowlers and as expected the Indian batters struggled to free themselves from the early manacles imposed upon them by England.
No matter how much we dissect the innings, there will be very few positives, rather no positives at all. In fact, to make matters worse, the Indian bowling that has been downright rampant has failed to budge the two openers of England. We will try and spot a few reasons why India lagged so badly on the first day of the Test.
#1 Poor decision at the toss
It is hard to say whether VK got too carried away with emotions after winning the toss on his seventh attempt on the bounce. The pitch was never going to assist the batters early in the game, especially with the amount of early movement on the ball. The fact that Kohli went for batting was surprising. You may say that England managed to score runs easily and that was because the ball was not new when England came out to bat and it gave them the breathing space that the Indian batters didn’t manage to find.
#2 Indecisiveness in the corridor of uncertainty on off-stump
The Indian middle-order has been struggling for a long time now on the off-stump. Every single delivery that is hurled on the fourth or fifth stump outside off, the batters start teetering. Especially the likes of Kohli, Pujara and Rahane have been extraordinarily sloppy. Another glaring factor that has left India on the edge is their ability to let the ball slip. They try and play most of the balls and on occasions even try and drive them. This move from the batters has been pretty baffling considering the situation of the pitch and the consistent swing that England has managed to generate.
#3 A couple of tinkering could have been done to the bowling department
With the pitch offering considerable swing, Kohli could have started the day with Shami and Siraj instead of Bumrah and Ishant. Both of the former pair are experts of movement and focus more on bowling close to the off-stump. With Haseeb Ahmed under pressure after a couple of debacles in the first two matches, a tighter line and some movement could have been very handy for the Indians. Bumrah is a man based on pace and the English men generally don’t go down easy against deliveries coming straight at you.
