Explained: Where England lost the Test series against India

After the first Test in Hyderabad, it seemed like England will be giving a tough fight to hosts India but the next four Tests proved otherwise. England just couldn't keep up the fight with India in either batting or bowling and much of the onus lies on their seniors. With India short of Virat Kohli in entire series, KL Rahul for four Tests and Ravindra Jadeja for second Test in addition to an inexperienced middle order, England had chance to capitalise but they failed.

Let's have a look at where England lost the series:

Seniors failed with the bat

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England's senior batters Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Pope had to bat long but they couldn't. The English batters had their moments like Pope in the first Test with 196 and Root in the fourth Test in Ranchi with 122 not out but it wasn't enough.

Also Read:India on top of ICC Team Rankings in all three formats after Test series win against England

Talking about their individual performances, Root scored 320 runs, Bairstow scored 238, Stokes managed just 199 and Pope scored 315 - a total of 1,072 runs among four batters in 10 innings at a combined average of 107 per innings and 25 runs per batter in each innings of one Test.

Looking at India, the inexperience middle order of Dhurv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan did better than expected. Jurel scored 190 runs in four innings at an average of 63, Jadeja scored 232 runs in six innings at an average of 38 and Sarfaraz managed 200 runs in five innings at an average of 50.

If Shubman Gill's stats are added to them, who scored 452 runs in nine innings at an average of 56.5, India clearly outdid England in the middle order batting.

While the runs were not much by the Indian middle order, it was their ability to take the game ahead after the top three did bulk of the scoring.

Let's have a look at the top order scoring:

Top order comparisons

India's Yashasvi Jaiswal was definitely in the form of his life so far as he scored a record 712 runs in nine innings at an average of 89 with two double hundreds and three fifties as well. His partner and skipper Rohit Sharma also hit 400 runs - the third Indian batter to reach the mark in the series - at an average of 44 with two hundreds and one fifty.

Together, Jaiswal and Rohit scored 1,112 runs in nine innings for India at the top at an average of 123 which included two double hundreds, two hundreds and four fifties.

On the other hand, only Zak Crawley was able to breach the 400-run mark in the series for England, scoring 407 runs in 10 innings at an average of 40.7 with four fifties and a best of 79. His opening partner Ben Duckett was the next best batter for England on the tour - scoring 343 runs in 10 innings at an average of 34 with only one hundred and no fifties.

The England openers together scored 750 runs in 10 innings at an average of 75, almost 50 less than Indian openers per innings.

Bumrah outshines England pacers

The pitches were always going to be the point of contention in the series with India traditionally offering pitches suitable to the spinners. While this time the playing strips were not rank turners, theydidn't support the pacers much anyway.

India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, however, still produced magic with the ball and finished with 19 wickets in eight innings of four Tests he played. Bumrah took more wickets then James Anderson (10) and Mark Wood (4) combined - a testimony to how India is not only about spinners taking charge at home anymore.

Apart from Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj also took six wickets while Akash Deep who played only one Test took three wickets - adding nine more wickets to India's pace tally.

Spinners stay on top

Spinners were always going to be the difference between two teams and the numbers proved it so. England were, however, hit by injury to their spin leader Jack Leach after the first Test but India were still the better side.

For the hosts, Ravi Ashwin took 26 wickets, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja picked 19 each, while Axar Patel, who played in just two matches, picked up five wickets. While Ashwin and Kuldeep took wickets at a strike rate of 36, Jadeja did so at 46.

For England, Tom Hartley impressed with 22 wickets but at a strike rate of 68, Shoaib Bashir picked 17 wickets in five innings with a strike rate of 59 while Rehan Ahmed picked 11 in three matches at a strike rate of 64. In Leach's absence, Root bowled 118 overs in nine innings, taking eight wickets at a strike rate of 88.

England, nonetheless, had their chances in every match but failed to wrest control which eventually lead to their 1-4 series loss.