ENG vs IND: 3 reasons why India lost the first test at Headingley, Leeds

India suffered a five-wicket loss against England in the first test at Headingley in Leeds.

The Indian Cricket Team didn’t have a great start to the five-match test series against the England Cricket Team. The series opener between the two teams took place at Headingly in Leeds and saw the Shubman Gill-led side bag a five-wicket loss. 

With the way India started the game, they looked clear favourites to win. This is because, after being asked to bat first, they piled up a massive total of 471 runs on the board. Centuries by skipper Shubman Gill (147), Rishabh Pant (134) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (101) put India in a comfortable position. 

However, their bowlers failed to restrict England to a low total. The Ben Stokes-led side, on account of a century by Ollie Pope (106) and a 99-run knock by Harry Brook, reached 465 runs, allowing India to take a lead of just six runs. 

With the game depending on the second innings, India looked decent with the bat as KL Rahul (137) and Rishabh Pant (118) hit tons, taking their team to a total of 364 runs, setting a target of 371 runs. England then made the chase look easy as Ben Duckett (147) hit a brutal ton while fifties from Zak Crawley and Joe Root took them home. 

ENG vs IND: 3 reasons why India lost the first test at Headingley, Leeds 

It’s fair to say that India have themselves to blame for the loss. There were quite a few areas where they struggled to get going, and those arguably took the game away from them. On that note, let’s take a look at three reasons why India lost the first test at Headingley, Leeds 

1. Batting collapse in both innings 

While five centuries came from India in the first test against England, one of the major reasons behind their loss was the lower-order collapse they had in both innings. In the first innings, it seemed that they would post around 550-600 runs on the board, but they lost the last seven wickets for just 41 runs as they were reduced from 430/3 to 471 all out. 

In the second innings too, the same thing happened as after centuries from Rahul and Pant, the total of 450 looked very easy. But that wasn’t the case as they lost the last six wickets for just 31 runs, getting all out at 364 from 333/4. 

2. Poor fielding 

India had a terrible outing in the field during the first test against England. They looked very sloppy in the field, which arguably was one of the biggest reasons behind their loss. The Shubman Gill-led side dropped around ten catches in the game, and all went on to cost them big time as England batters cashed in and scored runs quickly. 

3. Lack of support for Jasprit Bumrah 

Another big reason for India’s loss was the inability of other fast bowlers to support Jasprit Bumrah, who picked a fifer in the first innings. The likes of Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur weren’t up to the mark as they failed to maintain the pressure created by Bumrah, who bowled tight lines and lengths in both innings. 

Although Siraj, Krishna and Thakur were amongst the wickets, they failed to contain the run flow. England batters took all of them to the cleaners and won the game easily.

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