England need to admit they got it wrong after horrendous collapse in India

Ben Stokes believes England can win from anywhere – but they appear to have thrown this Test away in Rajkot

February 17, 2024 12:39 pm(Updated 1:54 pm)

3rd Test, Day 3: England 319 all out (Duckett 153) trail India 445 and 196-2 (Jaiswal 104) by 322 runs

RAJKOT — Ben Stokes insists his team can win from any position. Yet even England’s captain will struggle to see a path to victory from here following an horrendous third day in Rajkot that saw India seize control of this third Test and the series.

When the hosts lost Ravichandran Ashwin, their star off-spinner, late on Friday night because of a family emergency, it was another blow to an Indian set up who were already without a clutch of star players, including Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Rishabh Pant.

England, who ended the second day on 207 for two and in buoyant mood following a brilliant century from Ben Duckett, could not have asked for a more favourable set of circumstances in which to build towards a victory that would give them a 2-1 series lead with two Tests to play.

India had posted 445 in their first innings, but the opportunity to haul that total in and take control of this contest was there.

Instead, England blew it, collapsing to 319 all out after losing their final eight wickets for 95 runs, the last five falling in 38 chaotic balls after lunch.

By stumps, 10-man India were in complete control, ahead by 322 for the loss of two wickets and eyeing up setting the kind of fourth-innings target that would be out of reach even for Stokes and his eternally positive group of players.

One awful day doesn’t invalidate a Bazball project that has not only helped England win 14 of their past 20 Tests but changed the way people see the game’s oldest format.

Yet on days like this, when England’s naivety handed a depleted India a lifeline, they need to admit they got it wrong.

Bazball has completely transformed a team who had won one Test in 17 before Brendon McCullum and Stokes took over as coach and captain in the summer of 2022.

However, the lack of ruthlessness they have shown in this match has been startling – starting with the five missed opportunities in the field that probably added 150 to India’s first-innings total and then the kamikaze batting on this third day that saw a position of strength crumble beneath them.

Call it a lack of smarts, killer instinct or a failure to adopt a streetwise approach when the game situation dictates. But we have been here before a few times in the Bazball era. And they have seemingly failed to learn the lessons from those blow outs.

Wellington last February, when England lost 54 for five during a chase of 258 to lose by one run against New Zealand is one example.

Yet this match has eerie parallels with last summer’s Lord’s Ashes Test when England, hunting down Australia’s 400-plus total, collapsed from 188 for one in their first innings to 325 all out. Australia had also just lost their star off-spinner, Nathan Lyon limping off with a calf injury that would rule him out of the rest of the series.

In the end only a furious, brilliant 155 from Stokes got England close in that match before they lost by 43 runs.

Here, the margin of defeat looks like it could be much more after England reached 224 for two before imploding.

Joe Root started the rot in the fifth over of the day with a dismissal that infuriated many, caught attempting the audacious reverse scoop that has been his leitmotif during the Bazball era.

The fury that erupted from some quarters was as loud as the praise he garnered for attempting the same shot to the first ball on day four of last summer’s first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.

There’s nothing wrong with the shot, but the timing of when to play it was bizarre, with India’s depleted attack tamed inside the first 15 minutes of the day before Root handed them a freebie.

The Yorkshireman’s form in India this winter is a worry. Having failed to pass 30 in six of his eight innings at the World Cup, he has not scored more than 29 yet in this series.

Some luddites argue he isn’t a Bazball player but there’s no doubt when he’s in form, this new way works for Root because he is averaging more than 50 under the new regime.

Root wasn’t alone in falling short. Jonny Bairstow, who is also in desperate need of runs, fell for a duck before poor shots from Duckett, albeit on 153, Stokes and Ben Foakes hastened the collapse.

It was Stokes’ wicket that led to the cascade after lunch, another poor time to attempt to up the ante when India’s fielders were wilting in the 36-degree heat in Rajkot. Another hour or so of sensible batting would have then given Stokes and the rest the chance to go hard against a tiring Indian team.

Instead, they let them off the hook and found themselves back in the field before tea.

England can have no excuses. Root, Bairstow and Foakes are all averaging under 20 in this series. With a middle order misfiring that badly it’s a miracle the series is still 1-1.

It might not be for much longer. Although, with Bazball, you never know what’s around the corner.

That’s why people are getting up in their hordes at 4am in the UK to watch this series on TV. The cricket might lurch from brilliant to brainless but there’s no disputing it is entertaining – and utterly compelling.