India has secured The Pataudi Trophy now its time to strengthen their middle order and look for a better wicket-keeper!.

The start they got in this series is one of the best in recent times, especially away from home. However Cheteshwar Pujara performance in 1^st innings has been very poor especially when he is playing away from India.

In the ongoing series his first innings scores are:  4-9-1 and 4

Before this series India played the WTC finals, travelled to Australia, New Zealand and West Indies.

Here is brief stats of his first inning scores from recent to past.

The WTC finals v/s NZ: 8

In Aus his first inning scores are: 43- 17- 50- 25

In NZ his first innings scores are: 11-54-43

In WI his first innings scores are: 2-6

This gives fair idea about his performance.

Another selection should be to pick a better wicket-keeper than Rishabh Pant. In past he might have performed match-winning innings but his keeping skills are very ordinary, especially against pace bowlers. Almost every ball he collects he tends to fall or loses his balance. His feet are very slow, it does not move quick enough in line with the ball, hence he tends to use his upper body to reach for ball. I have observed his trait both on all condition, home, away and in varying condition, it remains the same –i.e unbalance!.

The series has been very close for both teams. They both dominated in various times, but difference between the two is very marginal – tilting towards India!.

India have the upper hand because of bowling strength and sound opening pair of Rohit-Rahul. Then there is Virat Kohli factor!.

Here is series analysis after 4 test match

First up we look at partnerships for both teams and how they are stacked up against win factor. interestingly England had more highest averages than India.

Here is inning wise partnerships for both teams.

Batting 

then we look at how top batsmen performed for both teams.

England

In this series there is one batsman whose performance has been truly exceptional and it is Joe Root, England’s captain. His performance stands tall above all.

India

For India it’s both Rohit Sharma and K Rahul have been consistently good across all indicators.

Bowling 

England have been troubled with injuries and have missed few of their strike bowlers. In this series Ollie Robinson has taken the mantle of striking for England. Although he is ably supported by James Anderson, Chris Overton and at times Sam Curran, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood, but they all looked less threatening then Indian bowlers.

India – I believe India are spoilt for choice in bowling department. They possess great skill.

However one is shocked to see Ravi Ashwin not playing a single test match in this series!.

In my view he is a world class spinner, and should be including in playing XI irrespective of condition and situation. I have not seen any world class spinner dropped from playing XI because condition is not conducive to spin!.

Ashwin has performed very well in non-Asian pitches. He has been effective on those surface as well. In the WTC finals he was excellent!.

Although is record is not as outstanding as his home record, but has been contributing with wickets. Only 8 times went wicket-less in 36 innings played in non-Asian pitches.

In last 2 years he is the only spinner in the world to pick most wickets with new ball in non-Asian pitches!!.