It's a half-decent (not very good) start for India, and while seeing England pull the game into the second session of the fifth day was disappointing, there are a few good things that don't need to be changed- while a lot has been spoken of Pujara and Ojha, another key issue is that of Umesh Yadav. The England seamers managed just one tailender wicket, while Yadav has snared four, on a flat deck with low bounce. India need to persist with him for the next two years and not discard him like they did Ishant (and are now staring at the frightful possibility of Dinda being a strike bowler).
One disappointment, apart from the failure to squash the English batting in the second innings, is the total lack of support from the batsmen who can bowl. Ashwin bowled 45 overs in one innings, and 28 in another. Ojha bowled more than fifty. The pacers came close to 20 each. In both innings, all the bowling options Dhoni had at his disposal, bowled a grand total of nine overs across the match! That's really poor, especially from Yuvraj, who is fighting for the number six place in the batting lineup. If there's no support from the batsmen when they're bowling, not only will the bowlers struggle, but India's number six won't be found.
What could do with a bit of work, though, is the spin combination. Ojha and Ashwin have been unconvincing on this surface, which is a far cry from a rank turner. We're talking of taking a bagful of wickets for under a hundred each. They're not as good as the top three Indian spinners, and need to turn the ball a lot more to be effective in batting-friendly conditions. Harbhajan can help these blokes out a little, as he's not an overly selfish bloke.
