LONDON: For a match that saw England drop their specialist spinner Liam Dawson and brought in spin bowling all-rounder Jacob Bethell in the playing XI apart from going with four fast bowlers, India opted for three pacers, bringing in a specialist batter Karun Nair replacing pace-bowling all-rounder. Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar remained their preferred spin-bowling all-rounders.
Given the nature of the Oval wicket and weather conditions throughout the duration of the match, pacers were bound to play a key role. England got unlucky as they lost pacer Chris Woakes on Day 1 when he injured his shoulder while fielding. Woakes bowled 14 overs in the first innings before being ruled out. Bethell got only two of 69.4 overs England bowled in India's first innings. The spinners, including Joe Root, bowled nine out of the total 88 overs bowled in India's second essay.
It was no different for India as Jadeja's share was only two in India's 51.2 overs in England's first innings. They did employ Washington in the next innings with him and Jadeja both bowling four overs each till 68 overs. Replacing a pacer with specialist batter for a match to be played on lively pitch raised eyebrows but with Nair being the only half-centurion in the first innings and three fast bowlers doing the job, the decision seemed right.
It, however, came back to haunt Shubman Gill and Co in the fourth innings as Prasidh Krishna went for plenty in the first spell. He did bag Duckett's wicket but conceded a lot of boundaries against Joe Root and Harry Brook. Akash Deep, who missed the fourth Test due to injury, looked off colour in the first innings but scored his maiden fifty in India's second innings to compensate for that to some extent. He struggled for length in England's second innings as well, mounting India's trouble. Prasidh returned to claim wickets of centurion Root and Bethell bringing India back in the match but by then England were only 37 runs shy of a famous victory before rain halted the play.
The team combination with preference to batting all-rounder over a specialist bowler has been debated throughout the series. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shardul Thakur got the nod ahead of pacer Arshdeep Singh and spinner Kuldeep Yadav. Thakur and Reddy, however, could only manage 46 and 45 runs from three and four innings respectively. In terms of wickets, Nitish scalped three and while Thakur bagged two wickets.
The Mumbai pacer was preferred in the first match of the series over Reddy but the latter made it to the playing XI in the next and featured in the Lord's Test as well before getting ruled out of the series due to knee injury. His absence meant Thakur once again got a chance in Manchester but could not impress with his all-round abilities.
The fourth Test also saw India flying in Haryana pacer Anshul Kamboj and sending him in ahead of Prasidh, the Karnataka pacer who was dropped after the first two matches. Kamboj looked out of place. His pace dropped considerably and he kept bowling down the leg conceding a lot of runs on his Test debut.
Besides selection calls, Jasprit Bumrah's decision to play only three matches in the series also drew a lot of criticism. The Gujarat pacer featured in the first match, which India lost before skipping the next Test. He returned for the Lord's and Manchester Tests and rested for the final match to manage his workload despite the surface being tailor made for pacers. And if all these issues were not enough, India struggled with injuries especially to their pacers. Akash Deep sustained a groin injury after the third match while Arshdeep, who was in line to make his Test debut in Manchester, injured his bowling arm during nets a few days ahead of the game. Reddy too injured his knee and ruled out of the series.
They might have faced a lot of issues but stayed alive in the five-match long series till the last day. But they could have done better had they been prudent in their approach be it team selection or workload management.
