How England Whitewashed India – A Bird’s Eye View - Part 3 of 4

VVS Laxman

Well, let us not expect every time that a certain player will click in each and every innings. However, VVS Laxman, who is a Test specialist, was also a failure in this series. Had he been able to hold on to one end during India’s poor batting show, India would not have faced a whitewash.

India missed the very special innings from Laxman in the entire series. Had it been for one good knock as we have always seen from Laxman in the past, the story would have been different today. Laxman has had many good outings against Australia. However, the services were badly missed against England when it was the question of the number one world ranking.

Gautam Gambhir

The southpaw will only be a name in the scorecard in the series. There was no vital contribution from him to his name. Gautam Gambhir never looked the real Gautam Gambhir for which he is known. In the last Test, he was gripping with health. At times he did not come out to the net practice with his team mates. His weak health shows from the fact that, a batsman of Gautam Gambhir’s caliber was batting at the number nine spot.

Sachin Tendulkar

How can the list be completed without the inclusion of the great man? Sachin Tendulkar was not up to the mark at times (it would not be right to point figures at Sachin and expect him to perform each and every time). Or let us say that, the English bowling looked stronger; anyways, the tide was in the hosts’ favor. He did make efforts to save the final Test and there cannot be two opinions about this.

As Sachin’s partnership with Amit Mishra was flowering, it seemed, Sachin had come to party with a century and saved the Test. However, the fall of Amit Mishra’s wicket led to the usual story of Indian wickets falling in a heap. Tendulkar was also one of them.