India looked down and out after getting bowled out for 191 in the first innings and also conceding a 99-run lead to England, came back strongly, and registered a superb 157-run win to take an unbeatable 2-1 lead with only one Test match to go.
The former England skipper Nasser Hussain who was highly impressed with India skipper Virat Kohli’s captaincy, showered the ace batsman with a lot of praises for bowling out this English batting line-up on a batting conducive wicket.
“I said at the start of the fifth day that it was going to be a big test of Virat Kohli’s captaincy and he passed that test with flying colors. That Oval pitch offered very little for the seamers and only a bit of rough for Ravindra Jadeja's left-arm spin,” Hussain wrote in his column in the DailyMail.
“But somehow, he manufactured 10 English wickets on the last day. Every bowling change worked, and so did every tweak to the field. And when he took the second new ball after tea, it produced a wicket straightaway, with Umesh Yadav getting Craig Overton,” he further wrote.
Many fans and pundits were disappointed by seeing no R Ashwin in the XI and thought that the tourists will be missing the off-spinner on the final day but the Englishman lauded Kohli as the team is on the verge of manufacturing a Test series win on English soil after 2007.
“One way or another, this was Kohli’s Midas Test everything he touched turned to gold, and India is now one game away from a famous series victory, not long after beating Australia in their own backyard.
Even the non-selection of Ravichandran Ashwin, the top-ranked spinner in Test cricket, became irrelevant. People said India would miss him. Kohli said: 'No, we won't. I'm backing our seamers to do the job.' And he was right,” the former England cricketer wrote.
Even though India went in this Test match with just one spinner in Jadeja, the 53-year-old compared how skipper Kohli made the best use of Jadeja, something which Root failed to do with Moeen Ali.
“Kohli also used Jadeja cleverly in a way that Root failed to do with Moeen Ali on the fourth day. By keeping his spinner on at one end, India's captain could rotate the quicks at the other, using them in short, sharp bursts and keeping them fresh. By ignoring Moeen, Root ended up bowling his seamers into the ground, with possible consequences for the fifth Test at Old Trafford,” Hussain concluded.
After winning the fourth Test, India is now 2-1 up in this Test series. Thus it will be exciting to see whether India registers a great Test series win in England or the hosts manage to replicate their performance from Leeds to level the series in the final Test match in Manchester from September 10.
(With DailyMail Inputs)
