How Lord's victory camouflaged the failure of top Indian batsmen

New Delhi: The whole nation including Indian contingent was on the seventh sky when team India registered a historic win at Lord's after 28 years little realising they need to have their ears on the ground to hear the celebrations of English players whenever they dismissed top order Indian batsmen.The team management was so soaked in ecstasy that they simply ignored the fact that we did not win because we played well…England lost because they fell prey to an obvious ploy, losing six wickets trying to hook or pull Ishant Sharma's barrage of short pitched balls.Captain Dhoni and some of the ex players including Sunil Gavaskar and Engineer have come down heavily on top batsmen but was it only the batsmen who let India down….? NO……same is the case with our fielding as well as bowling. Poor fielding:India has dropped around 40 catches so far in the series. If these catches were taken by the Indian fielders the end result could have ended in favour of India's way This will not be acceptable even at school level cricket.India is still searching for the specialist slip fielders after the likes of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman left the game. The likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja are not able to gauge the ball after it takes the outside edge of the batsmen willow. Jadeja dropping English skipper Cook on 13 of the delivery of Pankaj Singh proved so costly that it helped Cook to return to form which was an important factor for England's victory at Southampton.Fragile Middle: If the batsmen at the top are not performing up to the mark, the next to follow them also are not better. Pujara who was seen as the next ‘wall' of team India has not able to produce an innings of substance. Virat Kohli who has been given the role of feeling the shoes of great master Sachin Tendulkar seems to lose his silken touch and his struggling to spend time in the middle. In the first two test matches it was the individual brilliance of Vijay, Rahane, and late surprise in the form of Bhuveneshwar Kumar. Virat Kohli looks like he is all at sea against the swinging deliveries of James Anderson specially. Kohli has been dismissed pretty much the same way in the entire series, edging deliveries behind, either playing away from the body or going for a tame push. Lackluster Bowling:It has always remained the Achilles' heel for team India, The bowling attack was led by Ishant Sharma, who until Lord's test, was like sometimes hot and sometimes cold with the red cherry.Ishant produced a marvelous spell on the fifth day of the Lord's test when he had English batsmen dancing to his short pitched deliveries. Not used to bending his back on a regular basis, Ishant suffered back spasm and had to be ruled out of the next game.Bhuveneshwar Kumar though swings the ball admirably but the English batsmen are quite used to the conditions where ball swings. And that's why despite bowling well, he never could run through the English batting line up like Ishant, Anderson or Broad.Mohammed Shami, who was expected to deliver on the English pitches, has had a forgettable tour. He failed to not only provide support to Kumar but allowed the batsmen to settle down by leaking runs.The spin attack of Jadeja and Ashwin in the last match had minimal impact on the English batsman. Pankaj Singh has become synonymous with the term ‘unlucky' in the test matches he has played though he finally picked up two wickets.Now lets talk about the hyped Indian batting line up.India went into the series with Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay as regular openers and the experienced Gautam Gambhir as the reserve opener. Shikhar seems to have lost his touch after he made an explosive entry in the test arena. His willow has remained silent for quite some time now. On the other hand, Murali Vijay seemed to have a good run in England till he came to Southampton. Gambhir who was given a chance in the Manchester test failed to live up the expectations and the southpaw from Delhi looked to be completely out of sorts in the middle. Its not only the top batsmen not performing, even the middle order too collapsed when needed to dig in there.Pujara, who was seen as the next ‘wall' of team India, has not able to produce an innings of substance. The skipper Dhoni at the post match presentation said, "Consistently we are exposing Pujara in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th over and he might feel that he is better off opening the batting. Our openers haven't given us good enough start and that has put a lot of pressure on Pujara coming in at No 3, who has never felt settled."Virat Kohli, who is supposed to have fitted in to great master Sachin Tendulkar's shoes, seems to have lost his silken touch and is struggling to spend time in the middle. Virat Kohli looks like he is all at sea against the swinging deliveries, particularly of James Anderson. Kohli has been dismissed pretty much the same way in the entire series, edging deliveries behind, either playing away from the body or going for a tame push. In the first two test matches it was the individual brilliance of Vijay, Rahane, and surprised revelation Bhuvneshwar Kumar who rescued India. The batting apathy of team India was fully exposed when it could not bat even 90 overs in both the innings at Manchester. So, team India has to fix these glaring loopholes within a short span of time as there are only few days left before the final test begins at Oval.

How Lord's victory camouflaged the failure of top Indian batsmen

New Delhi: The whole nation including Indian contingent was on the seventh sky when team India registered a historic win at Lord's after 28 years little realising they need to have their ears on the

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