Turning Point: How India lost the Chennai Test!

by Abhishek Chakraborty

England beat India by 227 runs in the first Chennai Test. Here is our post-mortem:

Crucial Toss Won

Tests in India, are more often than not decided by who wins them and chooses to bat first on these placid dead batting tracks for the initial two days. Therefore, as soon as the England captain, Joe Root won the toss, he had no hesitation in choosing to bat first and boy, did they bat in some style.

England Bat Big

England accumulated a mammoth 578 runs in their first innings of Chennai Test on the back of an epic marathon knock of 218 runs from the skipper, Joe Root in his 100th Test match, scoring his 3rd triple figure score on the trot.

Dom Sibley made a strong contribution of 87 runs continuing his good run from the Sri Lanka tour. While Ben Stokes played his role to perfection in taking the game away from India on the second day morning when India was slightly in with a chance to get back into reckoning, but not to be, as he smacked the spinners to almost every nook and corner of the stadium with his big flamboyant hitting to which he eventually succumbed at 82 after having batted India out of the game by then.

India’s Makeshift Spinners Fail

With Jadeja not fit for the series, left arm orthodox spinner and lower order batsman Axar Patel getting injured just hours before the match, disrupted India’s playing XI balance to an extent.

The management had to consider Sundar for his effective lower order batting and containing right arm off spin option instead of chinaman Kuldeep Yadav who was in contention to start and willy domestic left arm orthodox replacement spinner Shahbaz Nadeem to fill in Axar’s boots. But none had an effect in the game in the first innings and failed to stay economical or in keeping the pressure on, created by the likes of Bumrah, Ishant and Ashwin who gave their all to extract something out of the dead rubber.

Flawed Indian Top Order Batting

With some heavy runs on the board, an upbeat England side took the field looking to inflict a lot of pressure on the Indian batting line-up. And so did they – Jofra Archer burst in with some serious pace and accuracy on the third day morning session and Rohit Sharma soon fell prey to him.

Though Shubman Gill looked at his fluent best, he too succumbed to Jofra Archer’s fiery spell. As all eyes hooked onto Virat Kohli for a fitting reply to an all English dominance till that while, he gave his wicket away cheaply to English offie Dom Bess poking at a widely hanging tossed up delivery feeding it to an onlooking hungry short leg in Ollie Pope.

Rahane too, in his casual self offered a bit of catching practice to Joe Root who spectacularly hung onto it with his outstretched left hand putting India in tatters at 73/4 in reply to a humungous 578.

Dom Bess Rising Up To The Occasion

Having struck early in his spell sending Kohli & Rahane back in the hut, he had his tail up inducing enough chances here and there on a 3rd day happening Chepauk pitch all of a sudden. But Pant and Pujara played upon the merit of the balls caring less on the surrounding pressure and managed a good counter-attacking substantial partnership of 119 runs before each of them eventually getting out to Bess who was by far England’s most potent spinner on the day as Jack Leach found it tough to get his consistency and was rather very expensive to Joe Root’s liking.

Conceding A Huge Lead Of 241 Runs

Though Washington Sundar tried his best to reduce the deficit staying unbeaten at 85* after Pujara’s 73 and Pant’s counter-attacking 91, India conceded the option to England of asking them to be following-on.

England chose to bat yet again to increase upon their lead with some quickfire runs resting their bowlers enough for the final assault. Though in the process, England misfired and got all-out for 178 giving Chennai’s very own proud son, Ravichandran Ashwin his 28th five wicket haul and a 6-fer. England set a stiff target of 420 runs in 102 remaining overs with a few overs to play out in the day remaining and an entire day five.

An Indian Resistance Too Short-lived (Fiery Jimmy Anderson Spell)

Having lost an unsettled opener in Rohit Sharma overnight to a beauty of a delivery from a resurrecting second innings Jack Leach, India had all to do with Gill and Pujara in the crease to see out the morning session for long though all the odds were stacked against their favor.

It was not to be so. Pujara too fell soon to another left armer’s delight edging it to Stokes in the first slip. And then came a spell for the ages from England’s ‘GOAT’ in the words of Joe Root. James Anderson ripped apart India’s middle order with a searing reverse-swinging spell that stumbled a good looking Shubman Gill and a scratchy Ajinkya Rahane’s off poles on to the ground in epic fashion crushing India’s hopes of pulling off another unlikely miracle after the history scripting outing down under just a week or two back.

Rishabh Pant too fell to Anderson’s magical spell. While Indian skipper, Virat Kohli found the perfect opportunity to get some crucial runs under his belt that should lift his dented confidence before the next test, the resistant show put up by the Indian batsmen was little too less to reflect upon thereby handing a deserving English side a resounding victory by 227 runs which saw almost every other individual from their playing XI standing up to the occasion at different junctures of the match playing their roles to sheer perfection aiding in their quest to win their sixth away game on the trot.

Kudos to the well prepared England side on their memorable victory. The Indians have a lot of areas to address upon before the next Test at the same venue as the WTC final spot is more than up for grabs with England leading the series by a margin of 1-0 with three games to play!