Rough ride for Captain Virat Kohli, Pandya's struggle, reasons that pegged back India

Virat Kohli the batsman was a smashing hit but Virat Kohli the captain failed to glow

Close-run series with England despite defeat - Kohli

Bengaluru, September 3: Despite showing fight at various junctures, India led by Virat Kohli lost the Test series to England 1-3 with a match remaining. It's a combination of factors that led to India's downfall and MyKhel looks at some of them.

1. Misfiring openers

India tested two combinations in this series - M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan and both the pairs flopped. Dhawan made 158 runs from three Tests at 26.33 while Rahul 113 from four Tests at 14.12 and Vijay amassed just 26 runs from two Tests at 6.50. To top that, Dhawan's 44 during the third Test at Nottingham remained the best individual score among the openers. The continued failure of openers meant that there was enormous pressure on the middle order led by Virat Kohli to gloss over the shortcoming.

2. Tactics of Virat Kohli

There is no doubt over who was the best batsman on view from India and England combined. Kohli was head and shoulder above the rest of the field scoring 544 runs from 4 Tests with two hundreds and three fifties at 68. He will get a Perfect 10 as a batsman. But Kohli the skipper will get only five on a scale of 10. He was passionate as usual but failed in some crucial moments. At Lord's he grossly misread the conditions and went with two spinners - R Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav - and both of them were barely needed. Kuldeep bowled 9 overs for 44 runs while Ashwin conceded 68 in his 17 with just a maiden. Neither of them picked up wickets or checked the run flow.

Similarly, in the first Test at Trent Bridge, England were tottering at 87 for seven with the overall lead of an even 100. Ashwin had the array of left-am batsmen in England line-up in a spin but Kohli chose to withdraw the offie from attack against Sam Curran. Southpaw Curran made 63 helping England set a target of 194 and India lost the Test by 31 runs.

3. Where was Ashwin?

Ashwin began the tour on a bright note at Trent Bridge asking some probing questions to England batsmen. His twin dismissals of Alastair Cook at Edgbaston was a treat to watch. But a hip strain he suffered at Trent Bridge seemed to have affected his rhythm. At Southampton, Ashwin had everything on a platter - a pitch with varying bounce, a sizeable rough but the off-spinner failed even to land two balls on the trot on the rough spot. He bowled 37.1 overs but never really threatened to take a wicket despite bowling a lengthy spell with the old ball on third day at the Aegas Bowl. Result: Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Curran milked some important runs to spur England to a defendable target. Ashwin's failure is magnified because his England counterpart Moeen Ali took a match-winning haul of 9 wickets.

4. What will you call Hardik Pandya?

For the record, Pandya fills the role of an all-rounder in this team. But his style of bowling - trying to hit the deck - did not bring him much result. From four Tests, he grabbed seven wickets but five of them came from the second innings at Trent Bridge. As a batsman too, Pandya, who can hit some hefty blows, failed to make a mark save for a fifty and that came long after India cemented their position of dominance at Nottingham. At Southampton, Pandya had a chance to prove his worth as a batsman in both the innings but the occasion got the better of him.