Leeds: Opener Ben Duckett hit the most defining century of his career, exposing an out-of-depth Indian attack as England comfortably chased down a tricky target of 371 to win the opening Test by five wickets after an intriguing five days of play here on Tuesday.
Duckett’s 149 off 170 balls with 21 fours and an audacious reverse-swept six off Ravindra Jadeja, along with Zak Crawley’s 65 in an opening stand of 188, followed by Joe Root’s composed 53 and Jamie Smith’s cheeky 44 made the chase look much easier than it actually was.
Having chased down 378 at Birmingham courtesy Jonny Bairstow in 2022, England once again did the same with elan on Tuesday, leaving India head coach Gautam Gambhir with an even bigger frown on his face.
It will be difficult to recall when was the last time that India had five centurions in a single Test and yet lost a game so comprehensively.
Shoddy fielding effort and no support for the peerless Jasprit Bumrah made matters worse for India. Indian bowlers in the second innings alone conceded 44 boundaries and three sixes. Add to that the 54 boundaries and sixes in the first innings.
There will certainly be bowling changes in the next Test but whether that will result in 20 wickets is a million-dollar question. In the final session, Ravindra Jadeja, who enjoys a favourable match-up against Ben Stokes, got the important breakthrough with the England skipper trying to reverse-sweep from the rough and his opposite number Shubman Gill taking an easy catch. With 69 runs to get, Root brought his 150-plus Test experience to play, guiding a young Smith through and through during the unbroken sixth wicket stand that sealed the deal for England.
While this was one of India’s worst fielding efforts with Yashasvi Jaiswal alone dropping four catches, skipper Gill’s relative inexperience in strategizing and taking on-your-feet decisions also became visitor’s undoing.
At one point, it seemed the team’s most experienced batter KL Rahul was captaining the side, and Gambhir’s record as a coach in traditional format got a tad worse.
In Gambhir’s coaching, India have now lost seven Tests out of the 11 that he has been in charge so far. The number of defeats could well go into double digits, considering the only potent match winning bowler Bumrah won’t play two of the remaining four games.
With nearly 50 overs bowled in the match, others need to step up if they don’t want the world’s best fast bowler to have another on-field breakdown.
India’s bowling cupboard lay bare and what’s on field and what’s on the bench doesn’t exactly paint a very rosy picture.
Shardul Thakur got a couple of wickets with two rank bad balls and with only 16 overs to show in an entire match, the Mumbai man’s Test career could feature an indefinite break. But then Nitish Kumar Reddy as a bowler is even worse.
The manner in which Jadeja’s deliveries gripped and turned, Indian think-tank must be ruing about missing Kuldeep Yadav, who would have been far more effective than a mediocre Thakur.
Prasidh Krishna took five wickets in the match but the amount of boundary balls that he bowled because of his natural back-of-length stuff, he can’t be considered a reliable option.
More than the tour of Australia, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma, two outstanding practitioners of swing and seam bowling, were finally missed.
Left-handed Duckett did survive a quality morning spell from Bumrah but stuck to his strengths with amazing conviction, laying the foundation for victory with a dogged Crawley.
The rain break in the post-lunch session did help India as Prasidh Krishna got a couple of wickets, but despite the twin blows, Duckett continued his offensive batting style to keep India at bay.
For India, Bumrah bowled a probing first spell but there was no support from the other end. Siraj and Shardul bowled enough boundary balls to let England off the hook.
Duckett’s game is based on simple hand-eye coordination as there was hardly any footwork.
The 30-year-old mostly remained rooted to his crease and tried playing forward or square of the wicket depending upon the length. He played late and that gave him time to punish Bumrah as well during the subsequent spells.
Duckett was dropped by Jaiswal off Siraj on 97, much to the frustration of the bowler.
When Jadeja bowled, Duckett would reverse-sweep him for good measure as there was not much help off the surface.
If one reverse sweep was hit behind the square and went for boundary, the other one was even more audacious and over extra cover for a six.
Not playing a spinner of Kuldeep Yadav’s calibre came back to haunt India and they would certainly make corrective measures in Birmingham Test that starts on July 2.
