It's a young team team and young captain, they will learn.
Agreed, but the coach and support staff could have done better job... Gill could have done better bowling rotation and field placements, which can be excused since he is a rookie captain... Young players can be excused, but coach & support staff are supposed to be perfect from Day-1 (because they have a fixed tenure of 1 to 5 years max). They should have selected a proper team and if they believed it was a perfect team, then they should have instructed their captain to utilize it properly.
I mean 3 bowlers that too pacers are not enough to pick 10 wickets of an innings... You need at least 4th bowler (a wicket-taking one) and even a 5th bowler (to at least dry up runs) when opposition batting goes hard... (That's why even England struggled with their bowling in 2nd innings with Woakes injury) 4th bowler should come and bowl after 30 overs when a partnership is built and the game is running away, there is no second thought about it! Even if that bowler doesn't pick wicket directly, he should induce and help the main bowlers to pick wicket... Either you should pick a genuine spinner OR 4th seamer in these conditions...
A combination of Siraj, Prasidh, Akash is fine, but we need a 4th bowler who is a proper spinner like Kuldeep OR if you want to go defensive then pick Nitish/Shardul (An attack of Siraj/Prasidh/Akash/Shardul OR Siraj/Prasidh/Akash/Kuldeep is better than Siraj/Prasidh/Akash+Jadeja/Sundar) But what India is doing is going ultra-defensive by having both Jadeja & Sundar... If they both are so good (i.e., with bat), then let them bat at No.5 & No.6 as specialist batsman, let's see if they can do it consistently! Don't do this rubbish by including both of them in playing XI and don't have the guts to bowl them! OR pick an additional bowler if they are so good in batting!
In my opinion only 1 out of these 2 should be playing in SENA, this is absolutely an issue!
I am sure if India played Kuldeep in any of these matches, he would have definitely bowled after 30 overs OR brought back repeatedly whenever the going got tough! No matter whether he picks wicket, keeps the run down, effective or ineffective, whatever, he would have at least been asked to bowl no matter what... Because he is primarly a bowler (That's what England did with Bashir until he got injured... Everyone thought he is an useless bowler, but he did his job in supporting the pacers, resting them and eventually he won a game for England!
He may not be a world-beater, but at least he is a spealist spinner whose job is to bowl and not hide behind alrounder tag! England couldn't win the previous match, drew that match because they didn't had a proper spinner - Dawson was not good enough, but he did gave a breaktrhough in 1st innings very early!)
So you must play your specialists, alrounders are OK for home conditions... Say in India, we can play all of these - Jadeja, Axar, Sundar and another bowling/batting spin alrounders as many you want (like how England has stacked their team with seam bowling alrounders). But both these teams will struggle when they go outside, because they don't have proper specialists... England doesn't have a pacer who can bowl in all conditions (their bowlers will struggle in Australia/India, they should hope that Archer or anybody with genuine pace can play in Australia for their bowling to be effective! And find a Monty Panesar or Swan when they visit India) Likewise India should groom a spinner who is effective in all conditions...
Tests should be played with specialists (especially if you are a visiting team... That's how NZ won in India, they didn't compromise with their bowling unit. If they played with typical NZ team as in past like stacking with bits & peice players like Chris Harris, Scot Styris, etc, they would not have won! They selected proper pacers & proper spinners!) If still the opposition beats you, then salute them and accept that they are better than you! But unfortunately India woud have had a better chance if they had fielded a proper side against this England team which is bit one-dimensional & beatable (they are made to look like old WI/Aus Teams! Thier bazball has not made them reach WTC Finals, so they are definitely not an invincible team, so they can be beaten at home with proper tactics)
If a proper spinner or 4th seamer (even Shardul) had played, he would easily broken the partnership of Root/Brook lot earlier and that would have opened the doors, the 3 pacers would have become effective again... Cricket is about rhythm and maintaining the momentum... This is what is happening with Bumrah... For Bumrah to be an ATG he should play in a ATG team with better balance! Mc.Grath, Ambrose, Wasim, etc, played in full-fledged bowling units (though WI didn't have a spinner, their all pacers were lethal in all conditions, so somebody like Carl Hooper was enough for them. Pakistan had full pace battery + Mustaq/Saqlain, Australia had terrific support pacers + Warne)
That's why England and India will fall below SA, NZ and Australia in tests and they cannot win WTC... They will not be totally effective outside their den. And smart teams can beat them even at home (like NZ beat India, and Australia mostly beats them in England). India at least has decent pacers, so they are more competitive than England outside home, and they are brilliant in LOIs... England are much worse, because they are useless in LOIs too...
