Abhinav Mukund – Has Tim Bresnan to thank for not getting a king’s pair. A first ball naught in the first innings and 3 from 47 balls in the second innings after being dropped first ball. 1.5/10
Rahul Dravid – Opened the innings in the absence of Gambhir and played a great innings (117) in the first to give India the lead but got out early to a peach from Broad second time around. Has been the most consistent performer with the bat for India this series. 8/10
VVS Laxman – Got a 50 in the first innings but fell to Bresnan and then was cleaned up by a superb Anderson delivery in the second. His test statistics of 16 hundreds and 54 fifties doesn’t do justice to this very talented player but it might explain his getting out after getting to 50. 6/10
Sachin Tendulkar- Poor shot in the first innings to get out at 16 and then misjudged and left a Jimmy Anderson inswinger to get out lbw in the second innings for 56. Offered some resistance in the second innings along with Harbhajan to cut down the victory margin for England. 6/10
Suresh Raina – Played poor shots in both innings to get out. Could not handle the pace and the bounce in the second innings and played a half hearted cut to Morgan at gully off Bresnan in the first innings. 3/10
Yuvraj Singh – Played well for his 62 after being dropped by Pietersen at gully in the first innings. Even then, looked much more comfortable against the spinner than against England’s pace bowling. In the second innings, played a defensive shot and looped the ball to a silly slip position which Strauss had placed the ball before. Also took the wicket of Ian Bell in the second innings. 6/10
MS Dhoni – Played a horrible shot in the first innings to get out to a Broad out swinger. The first innings dismissal was however made to look pretty by his second innings dismissal which involved padding to a Bresnan in-swinger for a golden duck. He also kept pretty poorly in swinging conditions at Trent Bridge. Admirably called Ian Bell back after tea. That doesn’t hide the fact that he had another terrible game and a game ban due to slow over rate might actually be a blessing in disguise for the Indian captain. 4.5/10 (2 for calling Bell back)
Harbhajan Singh – Got a first ball howler in the first innings and scored 42 to save some face in the second. Pretty useless with the ball in the match. Doesn’t look threatening at all with the ball. 4/10 Mostly for his display with the bat.
Praveen Kumar – Bowled a boatload of overs(58) in the match and ended up with 7 wickets. Showed great skill, accuracy and heart and also contributed with the bat in the second innings. 8/10
Ishant Sharma – Bowled well in the first innings and got 3 wickets but was expensive in the second. Still managed to get 5 wickets in the game. 6.5/10
Sreesanth – 5 wickets in the match but went for 4.05 and 5 per over respectively in the first and second innings. 6/10
Overall a pretty poor display from India all around. After England started racking up the runs in the second innings, the body language was pretty poor and so was the fielding. They will need to improve miles if they want to win the remaining two tests.
