The end was swift and unflattering for England; the margin was 246 runs and there were at least 53 overs still to be bowled when Jimmy Anderson completed his record-breaking innings and the Test was over.
Anderson stands alone at the top of the list of Englishmen with the most ducks in Test cricket; moreover this was the first time in 110 years an England player had suffered the indignity of a king pair in a Test match since Ernie Hayes in 1906, but this is the least of the tourists’ worries. Anderson is here to bowl and he did that well in this match.
The hope is Anderson epitomises a fighting spirit within the squad that will be essential if England are to challenge India in the rest of the series. With his dodgy shoulder he may have skipped this tour – there is not much swing or seam to be had in India – but he trained hard, looks match fit (with the ball, perhaps not the bat) and he has been desperately keen to make himself available for his captain.
England will need bucketfuls of that sort of resilience over the next month against an India side who delivered with zest and efficiency in Visakhapatnam. After the passive heroics of Sunday night, the tourists were swept away and the match was over 20 minutes after lunch. The batsmen were determined to be resolute but there was no resolution to the problem of combating an increasingly vibrant and disciplined India attack.
As Alastair Cook revealed, there was a plan, which meant emulating the South Africans’ strategy in Delhi almost 12 months ago: South Africa batted 143.1 overs for 143 runs in the final innings of the match and they just failed to secure a draw. At least there was a plan, agreed by the entire England team, but this one suited Cook and Haseeb Hameed rather better than the rest of the lineup.
On Monday morning such passivity failed to help England’s cause. In these circumstances there is often much talk of defending positively – but instinctively aggressive batsmen seldom move their feet into the best positions when their intent is only to defend. For them this is alien territory.
Such a policy would have been no help at all to Ben Duckett, who can be construed as a victim catapulted into a foreign land. He must have had a bad night that included the odd nightmare and sadly his brief innings retained a nightmarish quality.
Duckett has come to prominence as an aggressive opening batsman for Northamptonshire; here he was batting at No4 against the best spinner in the world, who has already dismissed him twice cheaply in the series, while the TV cameras were all aligned to transport his anxiety around the planet. Somehow it was no surprise when he was dismissed for a duck to an ordinary delivery from Ravi Ashwin; he gloved the ball attempting a tentative sweep shot before heading off forlornly to the pavilion. Duckett may have a special talent and there is every chance he will score many more Test runs, but that will not happen at Mohali in the third Test. At the moment dropping him would be doing him a favour.
Not that anyone else stayed for long; Joe Root defended deftly until he was lbw to Mohammed Shami; Jonny Bairstow played some skittish strokes before the last rites. However the most memorable innings for all the wrong reasons was that of Zafar Ansari, which almost mirrored Duckett’s little debacle.
Ansari was bowled for a duck by a scuttler from Ashwin and here was another reminder of what a cruel and lonely game this can be. Ansari has had a wretched Test. He began it by being tossed the ball for the 11th over, which must have enhanced his self-esteem. Thereafter there has been a catalogue of woe; he has suffered from sickness, from back spasms and then, even more painfully, from that dreadful feeling of irrelevancy. He was not required to bowl in India’s second innings; he could make no contributions with the bat in the match – and unlike the others (except Duckett) he has barely any positive experiences of Test cricket to cling to in consolation. It would be a major surprise if Ansari plays in Mohali.
England are bound to shuffle their pack. The most intriguing likelihood is Jos Buttler will return to Test cricket – as a specialist batsman. This is the sole option left, easily justified by the inevitable process of elimination (it is either him or Gary Ballance or Duckett) and the fact Buttler is right-handed. In a squad which increasingly suggests a flawed selection process in September, there are not enough right‑handers. Buttler will be encouraged to play with the freedom he so often demonstrates in white-ball cricket, which is easier said than done. It could be very exciting but there are no guarantees that it will work.
Chris Woakes will be back in the team in Mohali whether Stuart Broad is fit or not and England will contemplate the advantages of playing four seamers rather than three, which becomes a more viable option the better Adil Rashid bowls – and he bowled better here than ever in Test cricket.
Any concerns for India have been masked by the margin of their victory and the brilliance of the man of the match, Virat Kohli. Moreover their spin attack, enhanced by the conventional, high-stepping off-breaks of the debutant Jayant Yadav, seems to have regained its potency. On Monday they suffocated England. Now 1-0 down in the five-Test series there is not much scope for more passive defiance from the tourists.
