Hyderabad: When England was set to tour India for a five-match series commencing January 25, there was buzzing hype around it with the English side visiting India for the first time ever since they had adopted the 'Bazball'. The series was expected to be a fierce tussle between England's ultra-aggressive approach and the Indian spinners because Indian pitches often tend to assist them.
Coming into the series, the leadership duo of captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum had registered 14 victories from 32 red-ball games and 12 defeats. Only six matches were drawn which depicted their intent to play for a result in the five-day match. Also, England hadn't lost a single series with the duo at the helm of things.
The injuries provided a few blows to the Indian Test team as pacer Mohammed Shami was ruled out with an ankle injury while star batter Virat Kohli left the squad due to personal reasons.
Injury-plagued India didn't start the series on a bright note as well and they were blown away by Ollie Pope’s incredible blitz of 196 in the opening fixture of the series at Hyderabad. The Indian side suffered a defeat by 28 runs as a result. However, a turnaround was soon on the cards and the hosts scripted a victory while going through a similar kind of issue they faced against Australia back in 2020-21.
Just like the India-Australia series played three years back when India won the series 2-1, the hosts were missing a few key players and the names of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were added to the list as the series progressed. The selectors are often criticised for the choices they make, but something incredible stood out in this series. The young talent they banked upon, delivered on most occassions except for batter Rajat Patidar, who went through a lean patch.
Three fresh faces - Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel and Akash Deep donned whites for the first time. An international cap is a moment to cherish for any player and they captalised the crucial moment in their career with noteworthy performances.
Sarfaraz has been amassing runs with an average above fifty from the last two Ranji seasons and many have already demanded his inclusion in the Test lineup. The long wait finally came to an end in the third Test in Rajkot and he scored fifties in both the innings proving his mettle.
Jurel, the wicketkeeper-batter scored 46 in the third Test, but he came into the reckoning for his decisive knock in the fourth Test. He amassed 90 runs to display his batting prowess and pull India out of trouble in the first innings. His stay at the crease ensured that the fixture would not slip away from the Indian side. Jurel then finished the game for the Indian side with an unbeaten 39 in the second innings and also earned the Man of the Match award.
Apart from these two, there was pacer Aakash Deep, who was slotted in after benching Jasprit Bumrah. The right-arm pacer wasn't very fast on speed gun but he hurried the batters by being skiddy. He moved back his deliveries into the batter sharply and picked three wickets on his debut which included key scalps of the batters like Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope. These debutants proved that even if senior pros are missing, India can maintain their dominance at home.
While England batters were trying to stick to their attacking approach, one Indian batter made them taste their own medicine. Jaiswal gathered 655 runs with an unreal average of 93.57 and an astonishing strike rate of 78.63. He piled up runs with an aggressive intent at the top for the Indian team and kept the opposition bowlers lose their shine.
Another noteworthy fact was going against the usual norm of hosting Test matches on spin-friendly surfaces, with the surfaces in this series being quite balanced. Despite the change, India emerged triumphant, countering 'Bazball' successfully.
Parallels can be drawn from the ongoing India-England series with India's win over Australia in Tests in 2020-21. In that series, players like Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, T Natrajan, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur made their debuts.
Similar to the past, India's senior players were missing but the young guns like Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel and Akash Deep pulled up their socks when the team was in need. Just like Pant played a match-winning knock for the Indian side in 2020-21, Jaiswal emerged to be the star of the show for the hosts with the kind of demolition he inked with the willow.
With India taking an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series, they have already become the nation with the most consecutive series victories at home winning 17 so far. India are absolutely dominant, ruthless and a top-notch side when they play at home and statistics confirm the same.
