By Sunil Gavaskar
India will be hoping that the weather which interrupted play on the third day will play a role in helping them escape in the third Test match.
England once again have totally dominated this Test with a display that marks them out to be the number one team in the World.
They beat Australia down under to retain the Ashes, and now the manner in which they have beaten India shows clearly that this team is likely to dominate World cricket over the next few years at the Test level. The team has got a great blend of keen young players and some experienced guys and the self belief is incredible.
No other team in the world has the depth in batting that England has, and it is this aspect that has helped them get out of jail in the first two Test matches and become jailers themselves. The bowling which at the beginning of the series did not look too threatening has ripped open the Indian batting line up, and thrown it away like wastepaper.
Anderson with his swing and late movement has been at the batsmen all the time. Broad has bowled a lot fuller and has got prize wickets every time and Bresnan who looked a pretty innocuous bowler in the World Cup has obviously worked out, filled up in the right muscle areas and is getting the ball to bounce and move disconcertingly late. The experienced Indian batting has not been able to find the answer apart from Rahul Dravid of course and they have not only not reached 300, but not looked like getting there in any of the innings so far.
Without a platform from the openers it is tough in such seaming conditions for the batsmen down the order to do much, and so the batting has been strangled neatly.
What has been disappointing is the lackadaisical approach of some of the players who have given the impression that they would be better off being somewhere else than in this Test match. This sort of an approach does not behove the number one ranked team and it’s the lack of fight or resistance that has been depressing.
Hopefully the weather will come to India’s rescue and they can then go to The Oval for the last Test with the hopes of keeping their ranking if they win that Test.
The problem of course is that the bowlers who have bowled their hearts out have just not been able to worry the English batsmen.
Alastair Cook who was averaging single digits made up for that with a double ton of the highest class, but even he will agree that after a certain stage the runs were there for the taking just like the looters found the goods in the shops they broke were there according to their sizes.
The other noticeable aspect was the complete absence of any tactics or strategy. The field placings were hard to understand and the slow movers in the field meant that even when there was no run the batsmen were still able to get them.
India have been outplayed and unless the batting comes good in a huge way there is no comeback possible.