DNA Edit: Mentally Frail? – Edgbaston loss raises questions on India’s will to fight

It’s a bittersweet moment for Virat Kohli. The Indian captain has won the number one Test batsman ranking for his tally of 200 runs in the Edgbaston Test but once again his team has fallen short at the final hurdle. Granted, the England series has just begun and there’s plenty of time to shake off this failure but India still has a lot of think about. England bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes are world-class but they should not have not troubled a side which has the best batting lineup in the world. 

This Indian cricket team has come a long way from the 1990s when one man — Sachin Tendulkar — carried the hopes and dreams of a billion people but the inability of our batsmen to grind it out will bring back memories of our team’s mental frailty. This is especially so because this is not the first time that we have seen India crumble in the second innings. In the three Test series played against South Africa, which the Proteas won 2-1, a look at India’s second innings in the first two Tests was revealing. It was a paltry 135 in the second innings in the first Test and 151 in the second Test. Again, South Africa’s bowlers were good but nothing India could not handle. 

Pundits will talk about technique but the main reason lies deeper. Whether it is a lack of concentration or determination to grind it out it has been a tentative India that we have seen so far in Tests. This has to change quickly otherwise we run the risk of being dubbed the best one-day cricket team in the world. It’s not a tag that Kohli or India would want.