Fairytale turns nightmare as Kohli and Co. crumble in Headingley 

After the fairytale, came the nightmare. The remarkable resilience they had shown on the final day at Lord’s, first through Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah with the bat and then through their battery of four pacers, propelled India to a stirring victory and suggested they had England on the run.

How the tide turned within three-and-a-quarter days in the third Test, at Headingley in Leeds.

Two spectacular batting implosions, against the first new-ball on the first morning and the second new-ball on the fourth, have not just reopened old wounds but redressed the balance of power going into the final two Tests of a series that has yo-yoed wildly and, therefore, is fascinatingly poised.

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In itself, 78 all out inside 41 overs on day one – Virat Kohli did opt to bat after a rare toss won –  and 63 for seven in 19.3 overs on day-four are worrying developments. Throw in the fact that most batsmen were dismissed in similar fashion to their pervious dalliances on this tour, and the problem becomes even more magnified. Just for good measure, India’s first-innings meltdown was the second time in eight months and as many overseas Tests that they had been rolled over for double-digit totals. Panic stations?

Far from it. Kohli was defiant and defensive at the post-match press conference after the innings loss. That’s only to be expected from a feisty individual whose only backward steps come possibly on the dance floor. He was spot-on when he asserted that his team hadn’t become a bad side overnight, after one defeat. Now, it’s time for him and his middle-order batting group to translate that same combativeness to game situations, because it’s that core which is seriously letting the team down.

India’s dominance in the rain-hit draw in Nottingham and victory at Lord’s were fashioned by the excellent starts provided by the hastily assembled opening pair of Rohit Sharma and K.L. Rahul. Rahul’s first-over dismissal at Headingley exposed the middle-over to England’s crack pace attack in every sense of the word. India summoned neither the discipline nor the patience to tide over the expected challenges that come against the new ball on a fresh surface in England. As temperamentally as they were found wanting, there is a more serious concern relating to techniques that involve playing with hard hands, playing away from the body.

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Rohit and Rahul have showcased the virtues of the exact opposite dimension – of leaving balls unattended that didn’t demand their attention, of being decisive in their footwork, of not letting their hands get ahead of their heads and away from their bodies, of allowing the ball to come to them and not following it when it deviates off the straight. Most crucially, of playing with soft hands so that when the ball catches the edge, as it often does in England, it doesn’t carry to the slip cordon. One would have expected the vastly more experienced trio of Cheteshwar Pujara, Kohli himself and Ajinkya Rahane, as well as the free-spirited but frustrating Rishabh Pant, to have picked up cues. That hasn’t been the case.

Only Pujara of this quartet has shown signs of turning the corner. A minor but significant change in stance just ahead of the second innings at Lord’s has worked wonders. A lot more upright and therefore able to get his bodyweight on the balls of his feet rather than his heels, he has started to resemble the almost unsung bulwark of the Indian batting he has been for nearly a decade now. Pujara’s second-innings returns at Lord’s and Leeds didn’t come about by accident; he tweaked his game plan prudently. It’s now incumbent upon the skipper, his deputy and Pant, the younger tyro, to revisit their approaches which have led to each dismissal being a carbon copy of the previous one.

Also read: He wasn’t trying to get me out: Anderson on Bumrah’s barrage at Lord’s

On each of the five occasions he has been dismissed this series, Kohli has been caught behind the wickets pushing hard at widish deliveries pitched up, shaping away or straightening after threatening to duck in. For long periods on the third afternoon in Leeds, he appeared to have rediscovered his mojo, leaving balls outside off with the authority and certainty of 2018 when rewards came in the form of nearly 600 runs. He reverted to type against the second new-ball on Saturday, and it was no surprise that he fell caught at slip by his opposite number off the impressive Ollie Robinson.

Rahane has looked tentative, hesitant and uncertain throughout this tour. A timely second-innings half-century at Lord’s should have helped restore at least a modicum of confidence, but Rahane was again culpable of tamely, limply hanging his bat out to dry in both innings at Headingley. There is no greater champion of the Mumbai school of batsmanship than Sanjay Manjrekar, but even the former India batsman is convinced it’s time to give Rahane a break. Enough said.

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Pant is the impish candy-stealer when the shop owner is not looking, but this summer, he has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar far too often when the owner has eyes only for him. Charging down the track and attempting white-ball death-overs bravado against the likes of Robinson and James Anderson is both ill-advised and unedifying, not to say unbecoming of a man batting at No. 6 so that the team can stick with its template of playing five bowlers. Pant is no longer a novelty or a bonus. He is one of six specialist batsmen in the playing eleven, and if that hasn’t sunk in, it is time the team management reminds him of his responsibilities. Abandon isn’t always a virtue, not when the odds are stacked heavily against you and certainly not when the skipper has publicly expressed his reservations about bolstering the batting group with an additional resource.

It is just one Test defeat, yes, which should preclude knee-jerk reactions. But the alarm bells have been ringing for a while. Unless they are heeded post-haste, simmering embers could quickly snowball into an untamable inferno.