India’s batsmen have been poor in the fourth innings overall these past couple of years, and the problems start at the top
Bharath Seervi02-Sep-201818.68 – India’s average runs per wicket in the fourth innings of Tests in the last two years – the lowest among all teams. They have had eight chases in these two years of which they lost five. In the first Test at Edgbaston in this series, India failed to get 194, and at Cape Town earlier in the year they lost by 72 runs chasing 208.ESPNcricinfo Ltd9.91 – Average of India’s top-three batsmen in the fourth innings this year. In the four chases – two in South Africa and two in England – the top three have scored a total of just 119 runs in 12 innings and no one has reached 20.43 – Wickets for Moeen Ali in the fourth innings of Tests, the most by him across the four innings. This tally is already the second-most among all England spinners; he is only two wickets behind Derek Underwood’s 45 wickets. He has taken 39 wickets in fourth innings in wins, which is only behind James Anderson and Stuart Broad’s figures for England.2011 – The last time India lost a Test outside the subcontinent after taking a first-innings lead. That instance was also in England, at Nottingham. In this match, they led by 27 runs in the first innings.17 – Wickets for Moeen Ali in two Tests at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, both against India. He picked up eight wickets in the match in 2014 before picking up another nine in this match. He now has 38 wickets against India in 11 matches, his most against any team. Twenty-eight of these 38 wickets have come in six home matches against India.6 – Man-of-the-Match awards for Moeen in his Test career. All of these have come in the last three years and no other player has got more match awards than him in this period. Virat Kohli also has got six too. For England, the next highest is Ben Stokes with four.251 – Runs for Sam Curran in this series, all coming at the No. 8 position. His tally is the highest by any player at No. 8 or lower in a series against India. He eclipsed Daniel Vettori’s 220 runs in the 2008-09 series. Curran has passed 20 in each of the five innings he has played in this series so far.1 – Number of England players to score more runs in a series batting at eight or lower than Curran. Moeen Ali’s 293 runs in the 2015 Ashes is the only higher tally. Curran has batted just five innings here to Moeen’s eight innings that series. The highest for any player at those positions is 315 by Harbhajan Singh against New Zealand in 2010-11.
