Amid last week’s frustrations at England coaxing one of their heaviest Test defeats from a position of rare opportunity, came numerous reminders of the way standards have shifted upwards under this regime.
Turning 33 for three in India’s first innings, and then 224 for two in their own, into a 434-run shellacking was indeed quite the feat from Ben Stokes’s side; the final two days of Rajkot’s Third Test right up there with any of chastening passages that have sent previous visits to India into doom spiral.
The difference, of course, is that this one did not arrive until beyond the tour’s midway point and that the existential questions over philosophy that raged at the start of this week did so with the series still more than just mathematically on the line.
In picking over the wreckage, many drew comparison between England’s first-innings implosion and a similar one during the Second Ashes Test last year, referred to as ‘the Lord’s collapse’ without need for anything more.
Given England tend to play twice a summer at the London venue, under previous regimes, ‘last year’s Lord’s collapse’ might have meant any one of four. That, a couple of Tests into an India tour, there was not a more recent example to lean on felt something of a novelty, too.
England captain Michael Vaughan said in the aftermath that this team are in danger of being remembered like Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle of the 1990s: a great side to watch, but not quite a great side.
Again, had you asked any beleaguered England fan a couple of years ago whether they would settle for a team worthy of comparison to one known as ‘The Entertainers’, the answer would have been a resounding yes.
It is testament to the success of Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, however, that for many that answer has changed and Vaughan, in this fresh context, was making a fair point.
Should England fail to win the final two Tests in India — and ‘fail’ feels a harsh word given the monumental scale of that task — they will head into the home summer without a series triumph in 18 months, for all they have thrilled in the interim.
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The 3-0 victory in Pakistan late in 2022 remains a remarkable achievement, Bazball’s finest in purely results terms at least, but it is only really Ashes series (the next of which is almost two years away) and tours of India that have the potential to elevate England teams to the highest of planes. That is particularly true in this era, where triumphs on shortened tours to other parts of the world do not carry quite the gravitas of old.
Coming into this series, not a soul expected an English victory and few even seriously hoped for it. But expectation has been raised by two-and-a-half competitive showings, not to mention a suspicion that without Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami and, at times, others, this is not peak India, though Yashasvi Jaiswal has picked up plenty of the slack.
“The stars appear aligned for Root’s first significant contribution of the series”
In the same vein, the absence of the rested Jasprit Bumrah this week cannot be dressed up as anything other than a major boost for England, even with the seamer’s rotation offering more than a hint that the Ranchi pitch could be the series’s most violent turner.
Bumrah leads the series wicket standings with 17, at an average below 14, and has completely stifled the tourists’ best batter in Joe Root.
With his nemesis missing, and Stokes’s possible return to bowling set to reduce his own all-round workload, the stars appear aligned for Root’s first significant contribution of the series, with bat at least. McCullum claimed this week it is not even a matter of astrology, but simply a law of averages.
Bumrah will return refreshed for the finale in Dharamshala two weeks from now. England’s task before then is to ensure the series is still alive when he does.