No Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami and Rishabh Pant for the entire series. No KL Rahul for three matches. No Ravindra Jadeja for 2nd Test. No Jasprit Bumrah for the fourth Test. No Ravichandran Ashwin for more than a day. India‘s top 6, for two matches, had less combined experience than Ben Stokes. Yet, England suffered an array of three straight defeats to concede the series 1-3 against India. On Monday, the visitors lost the fourth Test match of the series by five wickets, despite taking a first-innings lead in Ranchi. Following the loss, former India cricketer Virender Sehwag handed England a terrifying reality as booking a place in the World Test Championship final now seems out of reach.
When England had began Day 4 of the fourth Test, they had a 134-run lead with India’s tail exposed and Dhruv Jurel, who was playing his second international game, was the home team’s last batting hope. However, combining with India No. 9 Kuldeep Yadav, Jurel put on a valiant show to score 90 in their 76-run stand as India managed to reduce the deficit in the first innings to just 46 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep and Ravindra Jadeja then struck at regular intervals to fold England for just 145 runs in the second innings, where the senior-most bowler picked up a 35th career five-wicket haul. In response to the target of 192, the India openers stitched a promising 84-run stand before the England spinners struck in quick time to reduce the hosts to 120 for five. Jurel once again stepped up, combining with Shubman Gill, as India wrapped up the chase before Tea on Day 4.
It was the first time ever England, under captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, suffered a series defeat. It was also the first time they lost three Tests in succession. The array of losses saw England slip to the eighth spot in the WTC points table with a point contested of 19.44. England, in nine matches in the ongoing Test cycle, suffered five defeats, while managing just three wins. One of those wins came in Hyderabad last month, in the Test series opener against India.
Highlighting the WTC points table, Sehwag took a brutal dig at England’s Bazball ideology. He wrote: “Karlo Entertainment,England. Jeet jaisi boring cheez Bharat, Australia, New Zealand kar lenge (Do your bit of entertainment, England. India, Australia and New Zealand can take care of boring things like winning matches),” he tweeted.
India, meanwhile, stand in the second position with a PCT of 64.58 from eight matches. New Zealand remain at the top of the table with PCT of 75.
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