Despite being on top across various phases of the game, India lost the Headingley Test by five wickets. Here are the five main reasons why.
Shubman Gill's first day in Test cricket as captain began as well as he could have possibly hoped for. India batted first, piled on the runs, finished on 369-3, and Gill scored his first hundred outside Asia. Four days later, somehow, it ended in heartbreak: England chased down 371 with five wickets to spare. Despite being in control for most parts of the game, India let dominant positions slip through their fingers, and England hung in just about long enough to grab their opportunities whenever they presented themselves.
1st Test, England vs India
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Catches win matches
It's paradoxical. Catches are supposed to win you matches, but you also don't lose games due to one dropped catch. But maybe you do if you drop close to ten.
While both teams dropped catches at Headingley, supposed to be a difficult catching ground, India's spilled chances had a greater impact on the game. Yashasvi Jaiswal was the chief culprit, dropping at least four catches across the two innings, including those of Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, and Harry Brook. Pope added 46 runs after he was dropped in the first innings, Brook added 16, and Duckett added 51 and 52 in the first and second innings respectively.
There were other chances too. Ravindra Jadeja dropped a catch at backward point in the first innings, Rishabh Pant let down a chance off Brook, and Sai Sudharsan also spilled a chance. To go with that, India had got Brook out for a duck in the first innings, but Jasprit Bumrah overstepped and Brook had the first of his multiple lives in the game. In a game that went down to the wire, if even half of those chances were converted, the result could have been different.
Centurions not cashing in
Four India batters combined to make five centuries at Headingley, a record for India. They also ended up becoming the first team to lose a Test after scoring five individual hundreds. The five scores read: 101 (Yashasvi Jaiswal), 147 (Shubman Gill), 134 and 118 (Rishabh Pant), and 137 (KL Rahul). On a pitch that offered so little help that a side chased down 371 on day five, ruthlessness that would bat England out of the game was the need of the hour, but none of the batters applied themselves for long enough after their hundreds. What followed after they were dismissed in both innings also makes it look worse in hindsight. Gill holed out at square leg in the first innings which started a 41-7 collapse, while India only added another 77 runs after Pant smashed one down long-on's throat in the second.
Two big tail-end collapses
India went from 430-3 to 471 all out in the first innings and 333-4 to 364 all out in the second. On both occasions, they had the chance to kill the game with the bat, but couldn't. While the collapses were triggered by dismissals of centurions who largely did their jobs (or so they would have thought when they got out), the India tail lived up to its reputation of being the worst in the world, offering zero resistance in conditions that weren't threatening for batters.
India's No.8-11 added 1, 0, 3, and 1 in the first innings and 4, 0, 0, and 0 in the second - a grand total of nine runs. England's last four batters, on the other hand, contributed 72 runs the only time they were required to bat. With the kind of bowling personnel India have at their disposal for this series, this is a problem they might just have to live with.
Selection and tactics
India picked Shardul Thakur as their fourth seamer who could add batting depth at No.8, but their usage of Thakur with the ball made little sense. He was only called upon to bowl in the 40th over of the first innings and ended up bowling six listless overs out of 100.4, going for more than six runs per over. While he was employed sooner in the second innings and also gave India an opening with his back-to-back wickets, it almost felt like India were playing with ten players for the majority of the game.
If they were to give their fourth seamer as minimal a bowling role as they eventually did, perhaps it would have been worth picking the better batter in Nitish Kumar Reddy, or the better wicket-taking (and defensive) bowler in Kuldeep Yadav. Once again, much like it did in Australia, India's selection gave the impression that they tried covering too many bases with one move.
Sometimes, you just get Bazballed
For all their errors and missed chances through the game, India still managed to set up a target of 371 for England. Only once had they lost a Test match defending a higher score - against the same team three years back. With rain around and a required rate of four on a fifth day pitch, India should have got the job done. But England Bazballed their way through like only they can.
Ben Duckett scored a hundred for the ages reverse sweeping Ravindra Jadeja through the rough, Zak Crawley and Joe Root scored fifties, and Jamie Smith provided the finishing touches. Maybe India could have tried a few other things on the field and been quicker to adapt. But reacting quickly to an audacious team that refuses to back down irrespective of the size of the challenge ahead of them can be a tough task, particularly for a young captain leading in his first Test match. England were relentless. India flinched. And in the blink of a final day, what looked like a comfortable position had been Bazballed into rubble.
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