Cricket: India's young guns blasted out

MS Dhoni scored more than half India's first-innings runs at The Oval. Photo / AP

Considering August 15 is Indian Independence Day, if ever there was a time for India to turn this series around, it was that day.

Unfortunately for their fans, the players' efforts to honour the auspicious occasion could scarcely have gone any worse - their entire top order deciding to join their countrymen back home in taking a national holiday.

They slumped to 44 for six and 90-9 before Ishant Sharma (7 not out) stayed around long enough with MS Dhoni (82) to help them limp to 148. Dhoni made 55.4 per cent of the runs - given the context of the match, it was worth 150 on another day.

England were 62-0 in reply, a deficit of 86 runs, with England captain Alastair Cook on 24 and Australia-born Sam Robson 33 as the hosts looked to extend their 2-1 series lead.

If there was a sense that the Indians had begun to lose the plot after comprehensive defeats in Southampton and Manchester, then the selection of Stuart Binny for this fifth and final test of the series did nothing to dispel it.

His fans point to the fact India are yet to lose a test in which Binny has played, leading one to draw the conclusion that his selection was primarily to fulfil the role of lucky mascot. But before 40 overs had even been played, it seemed clear that the fates were not on the side of the tourists.

Not that this performance can be in any way attributed to bad luck, rather a ruthless bowling performance, albeit in very favourable conditions, from an England attack that never gave their opponents the slightest whiff of an opportunity.

This is the first time any of this Indian side have ever played in a five-test series and it showed.

In unfamiliar conditions, India's top order have been worked out by England's bowlers and the results could scarcely be more obvious.

It was a day when a persistent pigeon spent more time on The Oval square than Gautam Gambhir - the recalled opening batsman's golden duck leaves his series average in single figures and his test career all but over.

This was supposed to be the series when India's young guns announced themselves on the world stage. Instead Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have made a combined 325 runs in their 18 innings, averaging 23.44 and 12.66 respectively - still some way to go then if they are to get close to being the new Dravid and Tendulkar.

However, this was not a day simply of Indian ineptitude, but rather a day when England's support bowlers joined in the party.

Much has been made of the home side's over-reliance on James Anderson and Stuart Broad, but England's success on day one truly came thanks to Chris's Jordan and Woakes, who not so much walked through the door opened by their more illustrious bowling partners as blew it off its hinges.

They finished with three wickets each, a reward for unluckier spells earlier in the series, and a promising sign for England's 'new era'.

In the end, it was only another 10th-wicket partnership and a bloody-minded captain's knock from Dhoni that saved India from total embarrassment.

Even after only one day, they'll need a combination of bad weather and every one of Binny's four-leaf clover collection if they are to get anything from this match.

India 148 (MS Dhoni 86, Woakes 3-30, Jordan 3-32) England 62-0 (Robson 33 not out, Cook 24 not out).

- The Independent