Birmingham: Head coach Rahul Dravid has turned the heat on India to improve the way they finish matches after they were overrun by a rampant England's fourth-innings heroics in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston.
India paid the price for failing to make the most of their advantages in the recent Test loss to England and against South Africa earlier this year, in a trend that head coach Dravid wants the team to confront head-on.
"It's been disappointing for us," Dravid said. "We had a couple of opportunities in South Africa as well and here, I just think it's something we need to look at, something we need to probably work on.
"We have been very good at that over the last few years, in terms of taking wickets and winning those Test matches. But we haven't been able to do that over the last few months.
"It could be a variety of factors: it could be maybe we just need to maintain that intensity, maintain that level of fitness, or maintain that level of performance right through a Test match."
India’s collapse from 190/4 to being bowled out for 245 in their second innings played a key role in letting England back into the match despite having a 132-run first innings lead.
Dravid spoked about how his team has started matches on the front foot but seem to lose steam along the way, not finishing with the same level of performance which was once again the case at Edgbaston against England.
"In the second innings, we have not batted as well," Dravid said. "If you look at all the third innings of these two Test matches overseas and this one, the batting has also probably not been up to scratch.
"In both areas, we have sort of started the Test matches well but we haven't been able to finish well. We need to get better at that and certainly need to improve."
Spinners have historically been India’s strength in Tests so the exclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin was bound to raise eyebrows given India’s recent struggles with picking up wickets in fourth innings.
"In hindsight, you can always look at things and look at the combination of your team. Shardul has done a good job for us in these games. It is always not easy to leave someone like Ash out in a Test match," he said.
"But having said that, when we looked at the wicket on the first day, it had a pretty good even covering of grass. We felt that there was enough in it for the fast bowlers. Even going into the last day the wicket hasn't really spun - whether it's for Jack Leach, whether it's for Ravindra Jadeja who bowled through the Test match.
"If anything, because maybe the weather played a part over the first days, and there weren't long phases of sun, the wicket didn't break up as much as we expected it to, or didn't spin as much as we expected it to.
"It's easy to look back on the fifth day and say it would have been nice to have a second spinner in the fourth innings, but again it didn't really turn to justify that." (UNI)
