England vs India 2018: 5 Indian players who disappointed the most 

Team India showed some fight in England in the recent tour but the reality is India lost the series 4-1 compared to the 3-1 lost in 2014. The margin of defeat in the series got bigger.

There were quite a few reasons for India's loss in the series. Some poor selections and even poor individual performances were the reason for the setback for India. There were players who were considered as world class but failed to perform miserably.

Let's look at five Indian players who disappointed the most in the Test series against England.

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#5 KL Rahul

Rahul was late to the party

KL Rahul played one of the finest knocks of the series when he scored 149 runs off just 224 balls. So, why he is on this list?

Rahul scored 186 runs in the last Test match at the Oval, London. But before that in the previous eight innings, he had scored just 113 runs at an average of 14.12. He was lucky to get so many chances and finally, he did well in the last Test.

Rahul ended up being the second-highest run-getter in the series for India all thanks to his one big innings at the Oval. Still, he averaged just 29.90 in the series with 299 runs.

Rahul is a gifted player with loads of talent. But he seemed to take his place in the team for granted. When he felt that his place was in jeopardy he was very much focused. He corrected all of his technical issues in the fifth Test and scored brilliantly.

Hopefully, the last knock he played will boost his confidence and help him perform well in Australia.

#4 Murali Vijay

Out of form Vijay

Murali Vijay went to England as one of the batsmen expected to do well in the series as his previous record as an opener in England was brilliant.

In 2014, Vijay had scored 402 runs at an average of 40.2 with one century and two half-centuries. But in this tour, his performance was so bad that he was left out of the side after the first two matches.

Vijay scored just 26 runs in the 4 innings at an average of 6.5. With his calm and composed technique, India were very much relying on him to give them a good start. But, he failed miserably.

#3 Shikhar Dhawan

Derailed Dhawan in the series

Such has been the failure story of the openers in the series for India that there is another opener in the list of worst players. Shikhar Dhawan was very lucky that he got to play in four matches in the series.

Dhawan was given chance after chance and he wasted them match after match. Team India should get rid of this Dhawan-obsession now. He is brilliant in white ball cricket so let him concentrate there, just like how they are doing with Rohit Sharma.

Dhawan scored only 162 runs in the four matches that he played at an average of 20.25. He was looking clueless against the new ball.

#2 Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya

India had a Hardik-dilemma in the series against England. The problem was India couldn't play five bowlers as it would result in one batsman short and they couldn't play 4 bowlers as it would result in one bowler less. So in the search of balance, they kept going for Hardik Pandya.

But the balance was far from finding. Hardik was ineffective with the ball and with the bat, he looked like a guy swimming in the ocean.

In the first four matches that Hardik played, he scored just 164 runs at an average of 23.42 with the best score being 52*. With the ball, he picked up 10 wickets with the best performance of 5/21 in the same match where he made his highest score.

#1 Ravichandran Ashwin

Ashwin still a sub-continent bowler

R Ashwin had to be the no.1 failure for India in the series. He went into the series with a big reputation. He was considered the best off-spinner in the world currently.

Ashwin is a king in sub-continent but had nothing to show in the overseas. So, this tour of England was expected to be the tour where he will start conquering the world. He showed glimpses of it in the first match by picking up 4/62 in the first innings and 3/59 in the second.

But, after such great start to the series with the ball Ashwin suddenly vanished. He picked up just four wickets in the next Three matches. Such was his performance in the series that he was dropped in the fifth Test match and replaced by Ravindra Jadeja.

The fact that Moeen Ali picked up 12 wickets in just two matches makes his stats even worse. Ali was constantly troubling the Indian batsmen by bowling simple off spin whereas Ashwin was trying all of his variations even with the rough to play with.