Ben, it’s time to mend

Wersquove seen a variety of captaincy styles during the twin Test series between the best four sides in the competition India England Australia and New ZealandRohit Sharma and Ben Stokes have waged an intriguing captaincy battle in their Test series However Stokesrsquos aggressive leadership faltered at a crucial time and Indiamdashwell led by Rohitmdashclaimed the series with a resounding victory in the fourth Test at RanchiOn the third evening Stokes desperately needed to start Indiarsquos chase with his best two bowlers and try to claim at least one wicket Incredibly he gave the ball to a parttimer in Joe Root and ignored the experienced probing bowling of Jimmy Anderson India took full advantage and scored an invaluable 40 runs off just eight oversMissing a trickStokes missed a trick in Ranchi He then compounded his error by allowing too many easy singles on the final day as he utilised some cautious field placings At a time when Stokes needed to be extremely brave as captain and hope he got lucky he was abnormally conservative ldquoIndia probably would still have won but at least by going on the attack Stokes wouldrsquove given England its best chance of an upset victory Stokes could improve his captaincy in demanding chases if he checked out the leadership master in those situationsrdquo Pakistanrsquos Javed Miandad saidAlso Read IN PHOTOS WPL 2024 Indian players statisticsRohit proceeded to take full advantage of the tentative field placings with a thoughtful innings and Indiarsquos solid opening partnership helped seal victoryThe second innings shouldrsquove been a time to force the Indian batsmen into taking a risk but by allowing easy singles Stokes gave his opponents the upper hand He also needed to use the experience and guile of Anderson to try and force the issue on the third evening but instead relied on the parttime spin of RootThe use of Root could have been an over reliance on the rightleft combination to get the wicket of Indiarsquos accomplished opener in Yashasvi Jaiswal Nevertheless there are times when captaincy hinges on gut feel rather than statistics or theories this was such an occasionNew Zealandrsquos blunderIn Wellington New Zealand captain Tim Southee lost the plot by allowing Cameron Green and batting lsquorabbitrsquo Josh Hazlewood to amass a century stand for Australiarsquos last wicket New Zealand made numerous mistakes in comfortably losing the Test but despite Greenrsquos undoubted skill in shepherding the tail Southeersquos leadership blunder was monumentalContinually dropping catches has certainly hurt New Zealand but allowing a mammoth productive tenth wicket partnership is an unpardonable sin New Zealandrsquos feeble batting they failed to reach the double century mark in either innings called into question their tentative approach against Australia and an inability to cope with the offspin of Nathan LyonThe inability to battle Australia is in sharp contrast to the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team In recent years the All Blacks have been dominant against Australia on the rugby field but the opposite is true on the cricket groundAs for playing offspin in both India and New Zealand some techniques have been questionable Why do righthanders get caught at legslip from an offspinnerIn fact why are they trying to hit the ball there when there is a legslip in place American baseballer lsquoWeersquo Willie Keelerrsquos attitude of ldquohit lsquoem where they ainrsquotrdquo is equally applicable to cricketIn the final Test in India England again capitulated to spinmdashthis time it was the wrist versionmdashthe talented Kuldeep YadavHe broke open Englandrsquos vulnerable batting order while R Ashwin plundered the bottom half as offspin was again dominantThis series sees India getting stronger while England are constantly being overwhelmed by spin and is fortunate itrsquos the final Test Meanwhile in Christchurch New Zealandrsquos capitulation continued they slumped to a third consecutive score below two hundred this time at the hands of Australiarsquos excellent pace men Despite all the feelgood stories and bold predictions India and Australia are still flexing their muscles as dominant teams