 "IND vs ENG 5th Test Top five key takeaways for Team India from Dharamsala")
India managed to give Bazball, not only a hammering at Dharamsala, by beating them by an innings and 64 runs but also established themselves as the strongest team at home. Even a team that won everywhere before it, couldn’t take the Indian side down even after being ahead most of the time in most of the Tests of the five-match series.
But the Dharamsala Test was the easiest win for the Indian team among the five Tests. Here are the top five reasons for this.
Kuldeep Yadav’s introduction in the first innings
England started well in the fifth Test as they won the toss and even in conditions favourable to pacers, managed to survive 17 overs and score more than 50 runs for the first wicket. But it was the introduction of Kuldeep Yadav that changed things. Kuldeep who had done brilliantly well in the Ranchi Test continued that form in the hills of Dharamsala too as he got the first wicket of Ben Duckett.
Smaller partnerships continued to be built but Kuldeep continued to chip away at the English batting and eventually managed to remove all the top guns including Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow and the skipper of the opposition team Ben Stokes.
Also Read
Jaisball on Day 1
If Kuldeep’s attack with the ball was not enough for the visitors, Yahsasvi Jaiswal attacked them with his unique style, which has been colloquially named Jaisball by the commentators on the line of Jaisball. Jaiswal hit 57 in 58 balls and smashed Shoaib Bashir for three sixes in a row.
However, one shot too many got the better of the Indian batter, but not before he had crossed the mark of 700 runs (712) in the series, which is the second-highest for one series by any Indian after Sunil Gavaskar’s 732 runs in a series against West Indies in 1978-79.
Even after Jaiswal was out, India did not give any opening to the English side as Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill settled down and added 171 for the second wicket. They smashed centuries and kept England waiting for the entire morning session on Day 2 and nearly batted the opposition out of the game.
Kuldeep-Bumrah partnership on Day 2
England did make a comeback with the ball as they got Rohit and Gill run out and also got the Indian middle order out. They had India 428/8 after getting four wickets for just 25 runs. It seemed like England would eventually get the remaining two wickets for the next 10 runs, which they did, but on the next day.
Also Read: IND vs ENG 5th Test: Stokes breaks pinky promise, takes first-ball wicket
Also Read: IND vs ENG 5th Test: Stokes breaks pinky promise, takes first-ball wicket
On Day 2, Kuldeep and Jasprit Bumrah played out the entire session and added 45 off 108 balls. They did get out, but after breaking the morale of the opposition team, which was about getting some boost after picking those four wickets. Kuldeep and Bumrah eventually added 49 runs. Had those not runs been there, with a lead of 210 instead of 259, England might have harboured some hopes, but that partnership did bat them out.
In the England second innings, Ashwin shared the new ball with Bumrah and picked up three quick wickets to dent any hopes that England would have tried to acquire. Most importantly, he got the big wicket of English captain Stokes right before Lunch to give India a sniff at victory on Day 3 itself. The victory came just before Tea and Ashwin became the most successful bowler playing their 100th Test as he finished the game with figures of 9/128.
