Blog - India sweep series 2-0

Day four in Delhi has shown there's promise in West Indies' batting ranks if it can be nurtured. But day five in Delhi will be the last day of their tour, and who knows what will come next. Given the constant churn in West Indies' line-ups thanks to the pressure of results and the push and pull of T20 leagues, it becomes hard to say which batters will play their next series, and which batters from this tour will remain when they next visit India, whenever that is.

India wanted to get out of the joint as soon as possible when they enforced the follow-on less than halfway into the match, but 200 continuous overs of bowling on an unyielding pitch later, India will have to come back on the fifth morning to complete the win. Having been set 121 to win, India only briefly tried to finish the match on the fourth evening, ending on 63 for 1.
Signs that it was going to be hard work made themselves apparent when the last two West Indies wicket hung around for 25.2 overs in the first innings, but India disregarded the conditions when asking their bowlers to go back in after having bowled 81.5 overs. India perhaps expected West Indies to roll over, but they dug in: John Campbell brought up his maiden century, Shai Hope scored his first in eight years, and the last wicket added 79 in their second-best partnership of 2025.

"But I guess [Kuldeep has] shown here, even on an unresponsive wicket, it does maybe make you think, oh, what happens if we had played him in Manchester, or what happens if we had played him at Headingley? But those are calls you have to make in real time, and we always try to figure out what's best, then we go with the call and the players have been brilliant at buying into it," ten Doeschate said. "But I think he's done himself some favours, looking forward, if we do have to make the brave call where we want to win Test matches, maybe we do go a batter light and play Kuldeep, judged on how he's bowled again in these two Tests.

West Indies made it to the second new ball for the first time this year, they registered their highest partnership for the year - an unbroken 138 between John Campbell and Shai Hope, Campbell became their first half-centurion of the series with a career-best 87, Hope scored his first half-century in 31 innings, but for all the good work they still needed 97 to make India bat again in the Delhi Test. Kuldeep Yadav conjured a fifth Test five-for on a docile pitch to allow India to enforce the follow-on, but the temptation to finish the match early only resulted in hard work for the bowlers: India have now taken four wickets in their last 75.2 overs.
India were not in immediate danger of falling behind in the Test, but they will question if they had been complacent in enforcing the follow-on: when you do so midway into the third day, having bowled 81.5 overs already, therein must be an element of expecting the opposition to roll over. India were then left riding two boats: trying to get the wicket but also preserving their bowlers, which meant Jasprit Bumrah didn’t bowl in the first 32 overs of the second innings.

West Indies gave a better account of themselves with the bat than in Ahmedabad, but India still remained in control of the Delhi Test after Shubman Gill scored his 10th Test hundred and declared midway through the day at 518 for 5. In response, West Indies put on their first half-century stand of the series - a contrast to at least 57 for every wicket for India in this Test, Alick Athanaze posted their highest individual score of 41 and they went 43 overs with the loss of four wickets. It was an improvement after they failed to bat 50 overs in either of their innings in Ahmedabad, but they still needed 179 to avoid the follow-on.
The day began on a sour note for India when the voracious Yashasvi Jaiswal was run-out after he had added just two to his overnight 173. He was quite demonstrative in letting his partner, Gill, know it was his call and that he should be looking at him and not the ball. However, Jaiswal had hit the ball to mid-off a little too well, and Gill had been quick to turn his back. Jaiswal, though, kept going, and left himself no opportunity to recover.
The ever-calm Gill took it in his stride, and - at least for the spectators - more than made up for the run-out with sumptuous stroke-play to bring up his fifth century in just seven Tests as captain. For company he had 40s from Nitish Kumar Reddy, promoted so he can play some role in home Tests, and Dhruv Jurel, whose dismissal brought about the declaration.

Well, first of all, our reactions to technique tend to be informed by what we're used to seeing. We're used to watching batters defend balls off the front foot when spinners land on the fuller side of a good length. Any other response looks unusual, and to many viewers, suspect. And if you believe this, that belief is only strengthened when that unusual method contributes to a dismissal.

Yashasvi Jaiswal consolidated his stature among best current Test batters with his seventh hundred, and B Sai Sudharsan moved closer to answering India’s call for a No. 3 with a near-flawless 87 as they piled on 318 for 2 after their captain Shubman Gill won his first toss in seven attempts.
On a typically slow Feroz Shah Kotla track, the West Indies bowling was disciplined - no extras through the day - without being penetrative in the first and final sessions; in the middle session, they lost all accuracy as India plundered 126 runs without a wicket.

That's the level of cricketer Jadeja is, while being a batter and bowler of deceptively simple processes that are all about repeatability and percentages. The high level at which he executes these processes, ball after ball, isn't immediately apparent to the viewer, and the subtleties of his craft, such as his clever use of the bowling crease to vary his angles, only really come alive from watching him over long periods. He doesn't make any special effort to illuminate his methods to his fans, and he routinely tells mediapersons at press conferences - often framing this in humour - that he doesn't want to give away his secrets.