India were up 2-1 in the 5 match series when the 5th Test Match was about to begin in Manchester last year. But as fate would have it, the match got cancelled. Top Indian players left for UAE to participate in the 2nd leg of the IPL. While the BCCI and The England and Wales Cricket Board was still figuring out what was to be done about the 5th Test.

It was finally decided that the 5th Test will indeed go ahead. The chances of the Test match to be held in the summer of 2022 were always there with India due to tour England for a white ball series. So the Test was scheduled to be played at Birmingham.

I'm not going to talk about what changed between the 4th and the 5th Test match between the two sides because that is very well documented. What I'm instead going to look at is how India, despite ample evidence at their disposal of England's current form couldn't strategise for what was always going to come at their way in the 5th Test.

It needs to be mentioned here that before the New Zealand series at home under the new leadership of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, England had won just 1 game out of 17 they had played. It included series loses in Australia and the West Indies. Those loses had led England to fire Chris Silverwood as the head coach and also let Joe Root to resign from captaincy.

When McCullum was appointed there was a sense of nervousness as he didn't have the experience of coaching an international side. But Rob Key while appointing McCullum had said that they believe in him and the ECB thinks he was the right man to lead the change in English Test cricket.

McCullum sure did what was expected of him. In his very first series as coach, England demonstrated they were a completely different side. Ben Stokes made it clear that he would look to give opportunities to players he believes will take England Test side forward. And sure he did. Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow all were given the freedom to play their brand of cricket. The fear of failure was taken out of equation.

It reflected in how Ollie Pope played against NZ. He had never batter at no. 3 in his entire FC career, yet he performed considerably well against NZ as he scored a century in the series. Jonny Bairstow too seemed to play with a completely new approach as he seemed to play in a completely different league.

While it was Joe Root who set the tone for England's victory in the first Test at Lords, it was Jonny Bairstow and his aggressive batting that led to a 3-0 whitewash of the current World Test Champions. It also needs to be mentioned that despite not having many of their first choice pacers at their disposal, England managed to bowl out NZ in all 6 innings.

The Eng-NZ series followed a clear pattern. A) There was assistance on offer with a new ball. B) After 25-30 overs, scoring became easier. C) The current set of Duke balls were not the best. D) Jonny Bairstow was in the form of his life. E) Joe Root was ever reliable.

The 5th Test between India and England followed exactly the same pattern. India while batting first lost 5 wickets inside the first 30 odd overs. Then Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja added more than 200 runs, similar to how Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell had done for NZ, only difference being the duo of Jadeja and Pant scored significantly quicker.

In England's first innings, it was again the same case, England lost 5 wickets for 84 but then came Bairstow's century. But despite that, England were behind in the game as India took a lead of 132 runs. Well many experts and the Indian team might have believed so, but England didn't think like that as for them it was always going to be a game of the 4th innings.

Ben Stokes had made it clear at the toss that they were bowling first because they wanted to chase. A approach generally seen in limited overs cricket but England were in remarkable chasing form as they had become the first team in the history of Test cricket to chase 250+ scores three times in a series against NZ. They were quite dominant in their chases.

So while India might have taken the lead, England were just looking to restrict India for a low total in the 4th innings and sure they did. India after being 152-3 at one point in the 3rd innings were bowled out for 245 runs. Most of the dismissals were a result of bad shots. Indian head coach Rahul Dravid too admitted it in the post match PC that Indian batters let them down in the 3rd innings.

So when England came into chase 378 runs in the last innings, they were not bothered about what had happened earlier in the Test match. They forgot that they were taken to cleaners by a certain Rishabh Pant, they forgot that they were behind in the game for most part of the game and the series. What mattered to them was just one thing and that was to chase down the total in front of them.

Joe Root, Bairstow, and Stokes' all three of them after the game said that they had the self believe to hunt down the target. They were so confident that it seemed like they were talking about chasing a total against a club side and not against the world's best attack in the last couple of years. But such was the class of English batters that the likes of Bumrah, Shami and co had absolutely no answers.

This begs the question, did India really prepare for the Test match? Because like mentioned earlier, there was ample evidence for India to make clear plans for the game. Jasprit Bumrah on the 4th day of the game looked completely clueless as the captain when England openers had a 100+ partnership. He looked clueless and out of sorts when Bairstow and Root got together. Why was it that Indian bowlers leaked runs in a similar way that NZ bowlers did in 3 straight Tests.

The answer lies in what Rahul Dravid said after the game. He admitted that he doesn't really know what "Bazball" is, "I do not know what Baz Ball is, but the way they have played their cricket, it has been really good. There are not many chases that happen successfully in England, so credit must be given to them."

He also admitted that the coaching staff did not see much of Eng-NZ series, "I must admit I did not get to watch much of the England-New Zealand series, we saw parts of it when we were doing our planning and preparation. But, they played well, to chase down the kind of totals they have in all those four Test matches, has been exceptional.

They have a couple of batters who are probably in the best form of their lives, they are playing exceptional cricket. I think they are playing really good cricket at the moment, hats off to them."

If you heard Dravid speak ahead of the game, you'd know that the head coach had said that India were not concerned by how England were playing. In fact during the course of the Test match, Siraj had come out and said that Indian bowlers were a tad quicker than NZ bowlers and that's why they were successful in the first innings.

What does this then tell to the fans? Is the team being dishonest to itself, or is the team being dishonest to its huge fan base? India certainly knew about the new approach of England, if they didn't it really is a pity and questions must be asked from the team management.

This Test match is done. India does not play a Test until some time now, their next series is against Bangladesh, they are expected to win. But if they continue to remain clueless about their opponents and insist on "focusing ourselves" they might miss a trick or two which can cost them.