3. Inability to defend totals in recent Tests
In the WTC Finals, India set up a target of 139 but lacked the potency to wave magic with their performances. In the last two Test matches of the South Africa Tour, the totals of 212 and 240 were easily chased down by the opposition with seven wickets to spare on both occasions.
In this fixture, the bowlers had a much bigger cushion with a big score of 378, but they could not leave any impact with their performances, as the pitch got softer, and the English team won the game easily. The batters did their part well by giving them a record margin to play with but the bowlers needed to create further in-roads in the opposition’s line-up.