India has won fourth test inside three days and England have been clueless . They won a crucial toss and had *a* golden chance of scoring 350+ to *put* themselves in driver’s seat. But it seems demons of last match were still playing on the minds and there was complete lack of application from their batsman. Not a single partnership of 50 and case gets stronger. No way the pitch could be called a rank turner as playing with grit , determination and application, runs were possible as was shown by India’s lower middle order. Pant, Sundar,Axar and Rohit at top of innings showed the way to scoring runs. Once the ball started spinning there was no way back for England in all three tests they lost. Even in their 2nd innings no batsman was looking to bat out 25-30 overs to give themselves and rest of the team a good chance of scoring runs.
Test cricket is the toughest format but will a Axar Patel believe after taking 27 wickets in three tests. He got some to spin and followed by straight delivery which none of the England batsman had any answer to. Ashwin was doing what he has been doing for years on Indian pitches that is taking wickets galore and showing credentials of being labelled as number 1 spinner right now. England should also prepare their plans for spin-friendly wickets back home so that next time they are better prepared. They have good county structure and they prioritise test cricket also so grooming their players on how to tackle spin should be *looked* after by ECB.
Coming to Indian team ,they are slowly becoming a team who find ways out of difficult situations and then turn the momentum gained from that to out pressure back on opposition. Teams of previous years were not able to pull this feat very often. Shardul-Sundar partnership at Gabba, Sundar-Pant partnership in first innings at Ahmedabad are examples and list will get longer only in future. They have booked a date in final of WTC against NZ and fully deserve it. Their top order form is bit iffy but if we are winning without top order contributing then it is definitely a good sign. Ishant said that winning final of WTC would be equivalent of winning World Cup and this Indian team would definitely give their all to fulfill the dream.
