Chennai Test: Virat Kohli & Co are batting and bowling experts

Virat Kohli walks away with a souvenir stump after winning the fifth and final Test against England in Chennai yesterday PicAFPEngland won four out of five tosses Result India winning the series 40 Lesson Winning the toss isnt akin to winning the match even in India India posted their highest Test score ever when the three most successful batsmen in the side didnt fire Lesson This team has serious batting strengthIndian seamers bowled faster looked more penetrative and took more wickets than their English counterparts Lesson India didnt need and wont need to make dust bowls to win at home Also its making us believe that India will be better prepared overseas The Indian lower order stood tall in almost every innings The likes of Jayant Yadav R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja changed the momentum of the innings and the match more than once Lesson India can toy with the idea of playing five bowlers more often which in turn would give them more chances of winning overseasAlso ReadChepauk win speaks volumes of Indias bowling depthIndia started as the best Test side in the world and throughout the series showed why the top spot was rightfully theirs England have been Indias bogey team for they came to India on the back of winning three bilateral series which included one in India Therefore India had a score to settle and they did it in style There were two key protagonists in shaping Indias fate mdash Kohli and Ashwin but since theres nothing left to be said about these two lets try to focus on the gains that got lesser attentionRise of Rahul NairKL Rahul and Karun Nair made their firstclass debuts a few years after the birth of Indian Premier League IPL and its only fair to assume that their formative years were spent hoping to be a part of the IPL The biggest criticism of the T20 format is that it doesnt encourage the younger generation to work on the skills suited for the longer format But these two batsmen have proved that perhaps the assumption is slightly misplaced The modernday batsmen have found ways to stay relevant in all three formatsAlso ReadThis is just the beginning says Virat Kohli after series win against EnglandAlso it must be worth noticing that their success highlights the success of the Indian domestic structure Both Nair and Rahul feature in the top five runscorers in the last three seasons on firstclass cricket in India Its quite heartening to see that theyve amassed thousands of runs in the longerformat without compromising their attacking instinctJadejas batting a bonusJadeja has been around for a while but somehow kept losing his spot in the side from time to time His bowling is ideally suited for Indian pitches for he keeps it extremely tight and that in turn has helped Ashwin to pick many wickets But his batting blew hot and cold too often and thats one area hes improved drastically in this home season thus farHe got a couple of half centuries against New Zealand and grew more in stature against England by scoring the tough runs in Mohali and Mumbai In addition to Jadeja India unearthed another talent in Jayant who will be quite handy in the home series against Australia early next year Since the Australian batting lineup has a lot of lefthanders India can play with two offspinners and Jayants batting once again allows them to field five bowlersIdeal pitchesEven though they werent dust bowls pitches were ideal for spinners and therefore its imperative to acknowledge the contribution of the two Indian seamers mdash Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav Both have not just allowed India to break partnerships in this series but their presence allowed India to hope for a better showing next time they tour overseas With this emphatic series victory India has widened the gap between them and the remaining Test teams and with five more Tests at home before the long homeseason ends their stay at the top is assured for a long time