Root and Bairstow were brilliant, but India lost it on the fourth day

Players know this better than anybody else: cricket is a game of failures. Even the great Don Bradma

Players know this better than anybody else: cricket is a game of failures. Even the great Don Bradman, who averaged 99.94 in a career of 52 Tests and 80 innings, made just 42 scores over 50. This means he ‘failed’ about half the time.

Yet, how you fail is important. Often you fail in the same manner in which you succeed, and while England have been given a lot of credit for their ‘Bazball’ style, the fact is that India, especially on the fourth day of the Edgbaston Test moved away from their own patented, older and successful ‘Shazball’ cricket.

The first is the entertaining style under England’s new coach Brendon McCullum (nicknamed ‘Baz’), and the second is the style inculcated by former coach Ravi Shastri. Partly this involves pressing home the advantage ruthlessly.

On the fourth day, India looked flat, unkempt and threw wickets away when both runs and batting time were important. From 190 for four, they lost six wickets for 55 to bring England back into the game; an England whose captain had decided to bowl first because they could chase anything in the fourth innings.

England were magnificent. Joe Root’s century must rate as one of the finest, full of grace and power and mischief. And with Jonny Bairstow in such stunning form, they deserved to win. It might have been gracious of Bumrah to say that it had been a tough series and the 2-2 result was the fairest.

Yet one can’t shake off the feeling that India reneged on Shazball, and a captain leading for the first time was placed in a difficult position. Gone was the aggression and command of the Virat Kohli years — although the then captain did go over the top often — and the team is left with more questions than answers.

To their credit, India, leading 2-1 in the series, did not pack their batting hoping to merely draw at Edgbaston. Most Indian teams of the past would have done that on the bird-in-hand theory. India went for a 3-1 series win, arguing that if it didn’t pan out, it would not be the end of the world.