India maintained their aura of invincibility at home after completing a 4-1 series triumph against England, and the ease of their final win may well subject the visitors' much-hyped "Bazball" approach to fresh scrutiny. Rohit Sharma and his men had clinched the series in Ranchi but did not take their foot off the pedal in Dharamsala, where they routed England inside three days.
The win, which consolidates two-time finalists India's position at the top of the World Test Championship standings, will have a special place in the memory of Ravichandran Ashwin.
The India off-spinner claimed five second-innings wickets to hasten England's collapse in his 100th test match. England seamer James Anderson, meanwhile, became the first pace bowler to claim 700 test wickets, partially lifting the gloom that had settled on England's travelling "Barmy Army" fans.
“If I look at this tour, I don’t feel like I can sit here and be unduly critical,” said former England batter Michael Atherton on the Sky Sports Podcast with Nasser Hussain. “I don’t think anyone expected them to come and win here. In general, I feel they played some pretty good cricket. The cricket has been competitive. India know they’ve been in a scrap. But in the end they were not quite good enough. The residual regret over the opportunities missed and the fact India were missing big names like Kohli and Shami and Bumrah here.”
The series has been a revelation for India with a string of youngsters stepping up in the absence of key senior players. Wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, who made his Test debut in the third match in Rajkot, led the Indian fightback with a stoic 90 in the first-innings. He backed it up with a match-winning partnership with Shubman Gill in the chase.
“India, 17 series in a row they’ve won at home, that’s how difficult they are to beat in those conditions. But I sit here and see it as a missed opportunity in as much as there is no Virat Kohli, there is no Mohammed Shami, there is no Rishabh Pant, for most of the series there is no KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah has been rested, Jadeja injured, Ashwin has to leave for a day of Test match cricket. There were opportunities there.”
Meanwhile, Hussain touched upon on the lost phases of play for England in the fourth Test. “There is no shame in losing to this India side but obviously, like with any Test series and any Test match, you look at key areas where you let the game slip and for me, all of yesterday really.
“What could have been a 100-run lead ended up being 46 and then in your third innings you don’t know whether to stick or twist and I think England batted in that collapse 26 overs for that 37/5 which, for this side, to go just over one run an over shows they didn’t know whether to stick or twist yesterday.”
Meanwhile, English batting legend Geoffrey Boycott questioned the success of the Bazball formula, labelling winning as the more important element. England is currently eighth on the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle standings, with only three wins in nine matches.
“Bazball has given Test cricket a shot in the arm and England deserve praise for that. At times, I love it. But I love winning more and England have failed to beat the best two teams in the world: Australia and now India. What should really hurt them is that they should have beaten both,” wrote Boycott in The Telegraph.
