DHARAMSALA: If, in a nutshell, England’s approach to batting on this India tour has been to string together their runs before getting the ball with their name on it, then in Kuldeep Yadav they have come up against an opponent whose methods could not have been more perfect. tailored to confuse them.
Few spinners in history have served up more wicket deliveries than Kuldeep has managed now, as he took his 50th Test wicket from just 1,871 deliveries as he took his first five-wicket haul of a quietly devastating campaign. – faster than any spinner since Jonny Briggs in the 19th century and more than 55 overs quicker than India’s next fastest, Axar Patel, the man who tormented England on their last tour in 2021.
He now has 17 wickets from exactly 100 overs in the series, but nine of those have come in his last 30. As he bowled England’s bat in the decisive third innings in Ranchi, he watched them crumble again. , in tough but sustainable batting conditions.
After winning what should have been a crucial toss, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett endured a tough first hour in swinging conditions to lift England to 64 for 0 with their seventh 45+ stand in nine partnerships in the series. However, that score was 175 for 6 by the time Ben Stokes became Kuldeep’s fifth and final scalp, and eventually 218 as R Ashwin scored his 100th Test with a four-wicket haul of the tail.
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Towards the end, England’s sense of a missed opportunity was completely massaged by another free table between Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who lasted till the end on 52 not out, and the Boy Wonder, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who charmed his way to a fifty of 56, including three sixes in four balls from Shoaib Bashir to take his run tally to a barely believable 26. In the course of his innings, Jaiswal swept past Virat Kohli’s previous record for most runs in a Test series against England (655). After breaking the 700 mark on his fifty, he was within sight of Sunil Gavaskar’s legendary score of 774 in the Caribbean in 1970-71, the most by an Indian batsman in any series. But then, in a rush of blood, he skimmed past a wide off Bashir, slapping his previous two deliveries for four, to be bowled out for 57 and with the third century of the series at his mercy.
But mercy was in short supply for England on a bleak day. The tape story was deplorable, no matter how thin you slice their latest batting collapse. They lost all ten wickets for 154 after Kuldeep’s first googly bowled the free-flowing Duckett; they lost their last nine for 118 after a coy Ollie Pope raced past another googly only to be stumped rather horribly by the stroke of lunch.
But worst of all was their mid-afternoon breakdown – five wickets for eight runs between overs 44 and 50, including – certainly uniquely – three elite batsmen each with century caps, and no runs added between them in the space of ten balls when Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Ben Stokes came and went with the kind of whining that would have banished the English mindset without consequence.
