Rohit Sharma's Team India Needs To Stamp Its Authority

England have been beaten but they are far from broken. And that's what makes this victory such a baffling contradiction for Rohit Sharma.

- Somshuvra Laha

VISAKHAPATNAM: There was no spectacular batting dominance, no seamless passing of the baton with every batter ratcheting up the scoring rate while tiring out inexperienced spinners and no swashbuckling knock from Sharma or Shreyas Iyer. Which has only added to a lingering uneasiness because Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill are still young and raw.

Catches weren't missed but that didn't make the fielding scintillating, partly because Sharma was averse to pressing more close-in fielders into the England batters' face despite sitting on a massive lead. Mukesh Kumar's only purpose seemed to be letting Jasprit Bumrah know if the ball was reversing or not. Axar Patel has seen better times. If India won, it was-as Rahul Dravid rightly put -because of individual brilliance, more precisely Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin because England were showing no signs of slowing down on Monday. Which is also why Dravid didn't mind saying the next three Tests were going to be 'tough' as well. That is coachspeak for "India can't take anything for granted".