It is peculiar to look back on India’s last Test in England in 2022 and now observe the quiet unravelling of what was a fine away-bowling machinery at its peak, back to its run-of-the-mill days.
A day-and-a-half at Edgbaston, defending 377, progressively slipped from India’s grasp as the struggles of their change pacers – Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur – seeped into a second successive innings. Ravindra Jadeja’s holding presence barely stubbed England’s record chase. Even Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami floundered during India’s first ‘Bazball’ sighting.
Three years on, the one-off 2022 pounding that cost India their first Test series win on English soil since 2007 would most likely form the early themes of Shubman Gill’s new-age Test side away from home.
Edgbaston was the tipping point from where India’s Test bowling arsenal suffered a decisive plunge in away performances. With no Shami around to soften the load and the precious Bumrah recalibrated to play perhaps just three Tests over the next seven weeks, India’s bowling attack will be one of varying strengths and experience between Friday’s Leeds initiation and The Oval finish in August.
For the fragility that now binds both the batting and bowling groups, it is India’s highest active Test run-scorer and wicket-taker – Jadeja – who will likely survive as the most consistent pick across the five-Test spread of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. It also brings the sharpest challenge to the defensive reputation of India’s most successful left-arm spinner against England’s Bazball-infused batters. Under the Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum captain-coach combine since 2022, England’s top seven batters have averaged 43.86, the best among all teams in home Tests. But their frenetic 73.31 strike rate has caused more headaches in the opposition camps, one that also hampers India with a bunch of profligate and untested bowlers, warped around Bumrah and Jadeja.
Edgbaston ’22 also serves as a reference to Jadeja’s innocuous bowling presence on strips that allow batters to bend scoring rates at their wont. Bowling 18.4 overs, Jadeja went for 62 without a wicket, conceding 3.32 runs per over. Incidentally, only twice has the 36-year-old bowled more overs at a higher economy in an away Test in the last five years, occurring in his most recent Test outings in Melbourne and Brisbane in late 2024.
England’s not been a paradise for spinners either, not for anybody barring Australia’s Nathan Lyon in the World Test Championship era at least.
Of the 98 English wickets felled by 17 visiting spinners in the last six years, 29 belong to Lyon with Jadeja’s abysmal 143.6 strike rate, bowling 143.4 overs, ranking the poorest. Lyon remains the only finger-spinner capable of posing a match-winning presence, gathering 20 of all 32 wickets registered by visiting spinners in victories in England since 2019. And even he struggled last week to make an impact during Australia’s WTC Final defeat against South Africa.