4) Ineffective bowling
Bowlers who dug out England batsmen from their root at Lord's in second test were not able to bowl them out completely in both the innings this time. Out of form Alastair Cook made 95, Gary Ballance comes up with his second consecutive test century, Ian Bell scored 167 and even debutant Jos Buttler scored a quickfire 85 runs of 83 deliveries helped England to post a daunting total of 569/7 in the first innings. It seems like Indian bowlers were tired and not in the mood to bowl.
In the second innings of England's batting, Indian bowlers were further humiliated by English batsmen. After getting bowled out for 330; India was trailing England by 239 runs. England batsmen then played another blasting knock of 205/4 in just 40 overs to give India the target of 445 runs. Ishant Sharma was out of the match due to injury and was replaced by debutant Pankaj Singh. His bowling was effective with good bounce and pace but he was misfortunate he didn't get any wicket. Bhuvneshar Kumar was not in his form, Shami has been inconsistent and Ravindra Jadeja was searching for wicket on the same pitch where another spinner from England Moeen Ali rocked Indian batting line up. With match figures of 8 for 129, Moeen had shaken off the perception of him being a part-time spinner.
India is certainly missing a professional spinner. Ravichandran Ashwin should be replaced by an extra fast bowler. After Ali's performance, it would be a calamity if Ravichandran Ashwin does not play in Manchester for fourth test.
