India cricket news: Five key takeaways after first Test match against England

After a thrilling five days of Test cricket, England managed to grab a late but great victory in the first Test against India at Headingley.

Here, Sports News Blitz writer Dejan Johal looks at five things from an Indian perspective to take away from this defeat.

Phenomenal Pant creates history at Headingley

Despite the bitter defeat for the Indians, one of the main positives from this Test match was the heroics from India’s Rishabh Pant.

Batting at number five, the wicketkeeper-batsman scored back-to-back hundreds in the same Test match and helped propel India to scores which saw them come close to winning this game.

In the first innings, he carried on from the foundation set by the top four and bludgeoned the England bowling on his way to scoring 134 runs in the first innings, which included a one-handed six to cross the century mark.

The second innings proved to be even more impressive and unconventional, with him contributing to an excellent partnership along with KL Rahul as he scored 118 off only 140 deliveries, which included many attempted ramp and scoop shots.

Despite the unconventional nature of his batting, Pant made history by becoming the first Indian batter to score two centuries in the same game against England, as well as becoming the first player since Virat Kohli in 2014 to score two centuries in one game.

After a fabulous start to the series, India fans will be hoping for more of the same from him as the series goes on.

India’s shambolic fielding performance

One of the key aspects that really stood out from India’s performance was how poorly they fielded in both innings.

The first innings saw India drop four drop catches which proved to be incredibly costly, as centurion Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Ben Duckett were all dropped and went on to make important contributions.

The second innings wasn’t much of an improvement as Ben Duckett was once again dropped by Yashavsi Jaiswal on 97, and went on to make a crucial 149 runs on their way to chasing down the target set by India.

As well as the drops, India looked far from convincing with their ground fielding with fielders letting the ball go past them to the boundary, as well as many failed sliding attempts.

India and head coach Gautam Gambhir need to seriously improve in the field if they have any chance of coming back in this Test series.

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Back-to-back batting collapses

India’s top order can take a lot of pride in how they batted in this first Test, with five centuries being scored in this game.

However, many Indian fans are disgusted with the lower and middle order, as they failed to capitalise on amazing starts in both the first and second innings.

Players like Karun Nair, Shardul Thakur and India’s lower order cheaply threw their wickets away, leaving head coach Gambhir in disbelief with the number of wickets that were falling.

Many Indian fans have questioned the inclusion of Thakur in this team, at the expense of Nitish Kumar Reddy, who scored a brilliant hundred in Australia.

After the foundation was set twice, the Indian team will be feeling that they threw this game away due to the batting collapses in both innings.

Are India overly reliant on Jasprit Bumrah?

Seems to be the same old story for India, where any bowler that isn’t named Jasprit Bumrah consistently struggles to take their opportunity.

In one of the finest spells in the first innings, Bumrah dominated the headlines, taking his fourteenth five-wicket haul with the red ball.

Despite his brilliance, the other seam bowlers struggled for India once again.

Mohammed Siraj failed to make any real impact on the game, despite bowling 41 overs in the game overall.

Meanwhile, both Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur in both innings went at economy rates over 6 runs an over, which were the highest.

Just like in Australia and over the past year, Bumrah has had to carry the Indian bowling on his back and consistently get them out of tough situations in matches.

And in the second innings, where Bumrah didn’t manage to claim a wicket, it became a clear problem for India on day five, as the others around him also struggled.

Changes have to be made for the second Test

For Gautam Gambhir and new captain Shubman Gill, some key upcoming decisions will have to be made for the next Test match in Birmingham.

Many feel that changes are expected to be made in an attempt to overcome the challenge set by Ben Stokes and his men.

It is expected that Shardul Thakur will be dropped for Nitish Reddy, with India maybe also making changes to the pace bowling lineup to try and shake things up.

Either way, the new coach and captain will need to make sure they get these decisions right, in order to avoid another defeat and slip further behind in this five match Test series.

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