LONDON: Soon after the loss at Lord's, India captain Shubman Gill admitted they dominated for most of the time in the past three matches but lost two of them because of some bad sessions. The India captain was absolutely right. Except for the fourth Test, India were ahead in the remaining three on most of the occasions but ended up on a losing side in two matches. They either let the opponents off the hook or squandered advantage opening doors for England to sneak in.
At Leeds, two batting collapses and five dropped catches in England's first innings cost them dear. In the first innings, they were 430/3 and were bowled out for 471. Gill and Co then went on to grass five catches allowing opponents to reach only six runs shy of their total. In the second essay, they wilted from 334/4 to 364 all out. English openers then floored them with 188-run partnership as the hosts chased down the target.
In reply to England's 387 in the first innings at Lord's, they were 248 for three when Rishabh Pant ran himself out in his bid to give KL Rahul strike to complete his century. That changed the match as Rahul slammed ton but India could only add 139 runs to end on the same score as their English counterparts.
Later in the game, they had reduced England to 87/4 at one stage but Joe Root and Ben Stokes added 67 runs for the fifth wicket as England set a target of 193. Chasing a small but tricky target, India lost four wickets inside 18 overs to end the Day 4 at 58/4 thus losing the grip of the match. They eventually lost by 20 runs. Interestingly, they had conceded 32 runs as extras in England's innings and it came back to bite them in the fourth innings.
Lord's was not an aberration as Gill and Co occupy the top four spots in conceding the most extras in an innings. They gave away 39 extras during England's innings in Manchester where Stokes-led side accumulated 669 runs. In Leeds during England's first innings, they not only dropped five catches but also conceded 34 extras helping opponents post 465.
Then came the fourth innings of the Lord's Test followed by the first essay of the same match where they gifted 31 to Englans as extras. Had they been disciplined while bowling, Lord's could have been won while Leeds could not have been a walk in the park for England.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir after the Manchester draw gave more weightage to partnerships rather than individual scores and India put his words into practice literally. Out of the top five partnerships in the series, India held four spots with the first one belonging to Jamie Smith and Harry Brook, who added 303 runs for the sixth wicket in Edgbaston. The remaining four belong to India with Gill and Pant's 209 for fourth wicket in Leeds, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja stitching together an unbeaten 203 runs for the fifth wicket in Manchester and Gill and Jadeja accumulating 203 for the sixth wicket in Edgbaston. The 195-run partnership between Rahul and Pant for the fourth wicket in Leeds is fifth. More than that, out of 17 hundred partnerships so far, India had 10.
Unfortunately, if the Indian batters stand out, the bowlers have not followed them in terms of performance. They have conceded plenty of runs and failed to bowl out opponents twice in a match. They hold four of top five spots among the bowlers, who have conceded most runs in an innings. The now injured Shoaib Bashir is at top for conceding 167 runs in 45 overs in Edgbaston but all places after that belong to Indian bowlers. Jadeja is second for giving away 143 runs in 37.1 overs in Manchester, Mohammed Siraj is third for leaking 140 runs in 30.1 overs at the same venue. Prasidh Krishna stands fourth for his expensive spell where he gave away 128 runs in 20 overs at Leeds and Siraj once again returned to hold fifth place for conceding 122 runs in 27 overs.
If that was not enough, they could bowl out their opponents only five times in seven innings claiming 65 overall wickets. England, meanwhile, bundled out India seven times in eight innings claiming a total of 74 wickets.
These errors coupled with some mediocre performances with bat in patches made India lose three contests from winnable positions. Had they grabbed their opportunities and not committed mistakes over a small but crucial period of time, they would have won the series by now.
Gill was asked a day before the last match whether the long and gruelling series had taken a toll on them physically and mentally and did it impact their performances and the results thereafter. "Not really. I think once you're done with the match, you're done with the match. And you move on to the next one. And you want to play the next one as competitive and as best as you can. And for us, I can say it doesn't really matter what we have done in the last match. Good or bad. Whatever has happened in the last match has gone by. We want to move on. And we want to perform the best in the next one that we can," Gill told reporters in the press conference.
As the India skipper said, the team wants to move on and they still have one last chance to draw parity by winning the Oval Test. For that to happen, they need to learn from their past mistakes and put their best foot forward come Thursday.
Most extras in an innings
38 in Manchester, Eng score 669
34 in Leeds, Eng score 465
32 in Lord's, Eng score 192
31 in Lord's, Eng score 387
31 in Leeds, India score 471
5 — India bowled out England five times in seven innings claiming 65 wickets
7 — England have grabbed 74 wickets so far bowling their rivals out seven times
(ALL STATS TILL FOURTH TEST)