Heartbreak at Edgbaston!

The team is as good as the captain is, the oft repeated cliché does not hold good now. Here was a skipper who played out of his skin and gave it everything in both innings to make a match out of it. Skipper Virat Kohli single handedly held the Indian batting afloat in the face of some pathetic spineless display by the much over rated top and middle order of Shikar Dhawan, KL Rahul and the now-almost-over-the-hill Ajinkya Rahane. Not that the Tamil Nadu duo of Murali Vijay or Dinesh Karthik did much with the bat either.  

To begin with, it was baffling to see the reliable No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara being dropped in favour of a T20 specialist Rahul, and Playing on a dry English wicket with 4 seamers? Indian think tank led by a sleeping-in-public Ravi Shastri has a few explanations to make. It surely was great game of cricket. A hard fought win for the home team. Spare a thought for the Indian bowling attack, they did well almost throughout, barring the early celebration-leading-to-complacency at the fall of the 7th English wicket in the 2nd Innings. From 87/7 Sam Curran, Adil Rashid and Stuart Broad together added close to 90 invaluable runs that made the eventual Target of 194 much stiffer than a possible 120 that India were eyeing for a likely fourth innings clincher.

The Edgbaston wicket, unlike many of the Indian wickets will not come under scrutiny, but the 32 run win will not be a cushion for England as they move to the 2nd Test.

Among the positives, Kohli apart, the bowling of Ashwin, Ishant Sharma and Shami will have to be strengthened with the addition of either Kuldeep Yadav or Ravindra Jadeja. The latter will come in handy as a lower order batsman too. Time to rethink the combination for the Mecca of Cricket. Lord's London beckons - Can India square the series? 

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Pic: Internet