Indian team enters final of the World Test Championship with back-to-back series wins over Australia and England. - Onkar Karandikar

 

India Vs England, 4th Test Match, Day 3:

Finally Indian cricket team has entered into the Final of World Test Championship!! Well done!! 

They have been magnificent throughout. Despite the changes in calculation rules mid-way through the WTC, they have still managed to reach the final with series wins over Australia and England

Final frontier is facing NZ at Lord's. India have only lost one series in WTC and that was against NZ, so they'll have chance to set that record straight too.

Of course qualifying for WTC was important, but these two coming-from-behind series wins- one in Australia and now in India haven themselves been extraordinary. 

Today, once again it was the duo of #Ashwin and #Axar who finished the job with 5-wicket hauls each. India's close-in fielders have been brilliant too. As far as slip-catching is concerned, Ajinkya as has been magnificent. Overall Indians have been good in the field in last 3 games. 

In the first session #Sundar and #Axar put on brilliant partnership and made sure that India got lead of more than 150, sadly both missed out on milestones. 

#WashingtonSundar really deserved the hundred!! 💔 He was left stranded on 96* as he ran out of partners from other end.  Absolutely brilliant knock nonetheless. Well played Sir! Earlier in this series also he had remained not out on 85. Today, #AxarPatel was playing well and accompanying Sundar, but he unfortunately got run out and then it was just a matter of time before Ishant and Siraj got out easily.Axar himself missed out on well deserved fifty. #BenStokes kept it simple, he bowled full and straight; and finished the job.

Yesterday, when India were in deep trouble and under pressure, #Pant and #Sundar played the situation perfectly, pulled India out of trouble and later attacked tired English bowlers. 

This has been a wonderful series for many reasons. Certainly Rishabh Pant's batting and wicket-keeping on these tracks have been simply brilliant. #Rohit made some really important runs including that 161 in Chennai. Of course Ashwin was brilliant throughout with ball as he ended up with 32 wickets in series and with bat as he got hundred in Chennai. Axar had amazing debut series with 27 wickets in 3 games. Sundar has proved himself invaluable with his batting and showed he can bowl well too whenever called upon. 

Form of three senior players #Kohli, #Rahane and #Pujara certainly is a big worry for India. They did play some good innings here and there, but by their standards, this has been a bad series. Of course this is not the time to talk about it. This is the time to enjoy the series win. Despite not being in good form himself, Kohli as captain in last three tests has been really good and Rahane captained brilliantly in Virat's absence in Australia too. Of course Pujara was fantastic in Australia and one bad series doesn't make you a bad player, but these home conditions are his bread and butter, so I kind of expected loads of runs from Pujara especially. 

England certainly made selection blunder in this game by picking only 3 proper bowlers in such testing conditions and even among those 3, Dom Bess is not that experiencd and bit under-confident at the moment. It was always going to backfire despite Ben Stokes bowling his heart out. One extra fast bowler and things could have ended differently. Also on this wicket, there was no vicious turn or extra help for spinners, so no excuses. Of course English team themselves and captain #Root himself never complained too much, it was the loud noise from outsiders only. 

- Onkar Karandikar 

The ultra-defensive approach from England backfiring in the 4th test match! - Onkar Karandikar

Day 1, 4th Test match between India and England: 

Ultra-defensive approach from #England here.

They have picked 8 batsmen and 3 bowlers. Yes Stokes and Root can bowl, but this can backfire. 

Now, look at the first wicket #AxarPatel got today, there was nothing wrong with pitch, ball didn't even turn, it's all in the mind of the batsman #DomSibley who just stood there doing nothing and got bowled inside-edge to a straight ball. After that, #Crawley threw wicket away by trying to go over the top before getting set. If this is how they are going to bat, then Axar will get them out even on glass or cement.

Some former English players have been unfairly critical of the wickets. Especially their former captain #MichaelVaughan really needs to stop this nonsense, he is just looking for attention and embarrassing himself. 

You can't blame the wicket all the time. Technique and temperament of the batsmen are needed to be questioned. 

#Sundar and #Siraj got prized wickets of #BenStokes and #JoeRoot respectively. 

#Ashwin and #Axar bowled the rest of the side out without breaking much sweat and restricted England to only 205 on Day 1.

Day 2, 4th Test match between India and England: 

Once again #RishabhPant and #WashingtonSundar came in when India were in deep trouble and they have bailed us out. 

Unbelievable hundred by Rishabh Pant and equally well supported by Sundar from other end who himself has gone past 50. That reverse sweep boundary over slip cordon hit by Rishabh Pant off #Anderson was unbelievable, the second new ball had just been taken 2 overs ago and he was facing swing king Jimmy Anderson. Once the new ball was taken, Pant hit two fours in Anderson's first over and Sundar hit two boundaries in Stokes's over. So the onslaught had started before Pant played that shot, still to play that shot while on 89 is just incredible, audacity and talent of different level.

As I predicted before -England going in with only 3 bowlers might backfire and it has backfired despite #BenStokes bowling his heart out and getting wickets of #RohitSharma and #ViratKohli, because in these hot conditions you always need an extra bowler and they went with one bowler short, also their two main spinners #Leach and #Bess haven't been effective enough and haven't bowled enough, so that put more pressure on Anderson, Stokes and #Root who employed himself as fifth bowler. Ben Stokes is tired beyond limit and yet he is asked to bowl again and again, this is only helping Indians as they are milking runs off him. 

Pant and Sundar wore bowlers down with patient approach early on and then attacked to take India's lead to 50+ now. Incredible temperament from both young players. Sundar also got the wicket of Stokes yesterday with beautifully bowled arm ball. So great all round contribution from him in his short career so far. 

Hope #AxarParel will provide something with bat today and take India's lead close to 100. 

Now India is in driver's seat to win this game. India's bowlers will be fresh tomorrow to attack English Batsmen in third innings and it's not going to be easy at all for the English team.

- Onkar Karandikar