London, July 29:
India lost the
first test against England by 170 runs, as expected, but not
before Ajit Agarkar emerged as a batsman who can score more than
a duck - he made a century instead.
Though the defeat was
inevitable after Sunday's spineless batting display by the top
order, the bottom showed that India could have easily saved this
Test.
Agarkar, who has eight
ducks to his credit in Test cricket including five in a row,
showed that the faith the team management has in his batting
skills was not misplaced. It was a brilliant innings, full of
fine strokes. More importantly, Agarkar and VVS Laxman showed
that this wicket had no devil in it and all it required was
stamina, self-belief and concentration.
Given that, the Indians
really lost the initiative in the first innings itself when they
were all out for 221. They lost everything on Sunday in the
second innings, when the top buckled in without showing any
heart for a fight. They lost because none of the frontline
batsman displayed the skill required to stay long at the wicket.
However, even more than
batting skill, what was needed was concentration. An art alien
to Indian batsmen.
They have the skill to
hit the ball around, draw applause from the crowd for a few
glorious shots and are happy enough with that.
In situations like
this, when the team needs a couple of players to bat through the
day, India are hopeless, something they have shown time and
again in the past.
It was no different at
Lord's where Nasser Hussain's England were better equipped to
rip through the Indians.
What should be most
worrying to India is that England won the Test without the help
of their frontline bowlers. There are still three Tests left and
unless the Indians produce something spectacular, a whitewash is
very much on the cards.
India could draw some
comfort from the fact that the inevitable was delayed in the
morning by some elegant strokeplay from Laxman, who needs to be
elevated in the batting order on the strength of his record.
Laxman was India's most
consistent performer in the West Indies and in this Test too, he
has flourished. He ran out of partners in the first innings to
remain unbeaten on 43 and in the second innings he again batted
like a champion.
It is time for him to
play up the order, perhaps back at number three, a position to
which he was promoted after his amazing innings against the
Australians at Calcutta. He was again demoted after a few
failures, but given the way he is batting, it is a sheer waste
of talent to send him so much lower down the order. He can at
least swap places with Sourav Ganguly.
India's late order
response on Monday again showed that the Lord's wicket was on
its best behaviour. Ajit Agarkar may have redeemed himself by
scoring a century here and proving a point, but his seventh
wicket partnership with Laxman of 126 and the last wicket
partnership of 63 with Ashish Nehra came just too late in the
day.
On a positive note, the
fact that India managed to score nearly 400 runs in the second
innings after having lost half the side for 165, could well be
the inspiration needed to salvage this series.
