Well, we won, but I'm not sure I've ever been so ambivalent about an England win. We should be over the moon for having defeated the number 1 side in the world, but frankly, England have been pretty rubbish for much of the series. This has to be the worst England batting line-up in a generation (as discussed earlier, you have to go back to the nadir of 99-01 to find a worse England side, I think).
Yet somehow, England keep finding ways to win at home, almost entirely though their bowling. The enduring quality of Broad and Anderson, Woakes and Moeen chipping in at crucial moments and the emergence of Curran, some generally helpful English conditions have all been factors, but a key reason has been the complete failure of India's batsmen to play the moving ball. (Kohli aside, and Pujara in the first innings here).
This is quite an indictment of India, their status as the number 1 side in the world, and frankly the status of modern test cricket in general. Yes, you can argue that India have been competitive, and two of their losses could have easily gone the other way. But in both cases they let England off the hook, whereas a more ruthless side would have destroyed them. The number 1 side in the world should not go down to the number 5 side 3-1 after 4 games, even when playing away. Home advantage in modern test cricket is just too strong, and it's going to turn people off as series results are just too predictable. That's despite this particular series actually being quite compelling. Paradoxical, I know. But if India can't beat such a bad England side, what is wrong with the game?
The answer has to be going back to the days of fewer but longer tours - plenty of prep time, time between test matches for the home team to go back to their counties and the away team to play some tour games, get used to the conditions and get players back into form.
India's status as number 1 is entirely based on invincible form at home. Pretty much the only teams they have beaten 'away' are Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which is effectively home conditions for them anyway, and which are number 6 and 9 in the world respectively. They've lost their most recent encounters away in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and now England. They travel to Australia in the southern hemisphere summer, and will take them on without their two best batsmen, but after this series and South Africa, does anyone think that the Indian batsmen will be able to counter Hazlewood, Starc, Cummins and Lyon? I don't.
Meanwhile, England have got to the end of another summer with a series win against a major side, and yet so many holes in their team and far more questions than answers over their XI. The problem is trying to shoe too many allrounders into the side and not having enough specialists, especially specialist bats, but it's hard to make a case to exclude any one individual. Moeen, Woakes, Curran, Buttler, Bairstow and Stokes have all made match-winning contributions over the summer, but six of them into the side just doesn't fit. So we end up with the current dog's breakfast, and the only solution is likely to be to find a specialist top 3 capable of scoring runs.
Finally
Dr Cricket wrote:Whereas at the moment every team looks at england and thinks they beatable at england.
no one thinks that england gonna be a challenge and it would be tough to just stay in the game.
no one fears england in england anymore.
Anyway I am happy to disagree on this.
I think I was right here - England are tough to beat at home.