Should India give up on the Anderson-Jadeja spat?

James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja get close during day four of the 2nd Test at Lord’s

Indian batsmen have amassed 2001 runs in the three tests so far, which is an average of 333 runs per innings, while the English batsmen have put up 1812 runs at 362 runs per innings. And that included the insipid Trent Bridge pitch. If we remove that, then India averages 288 runs per innings while the English declared two innings in the third test and average 329 runs per innings.

The stats favour England

In the same two tests, India have taken 31 wickets while the English have managed to take all the forty they needed to take. To top it all, our slip fielding has been shoddy: shoddy enough to deny a debutant Pankaj Singh his maiden test wicket (shouldn’t fielders be extra careful when they are standing in close for someone in such a situation?).

We have been out-batted, out-bowled and easily out-fielded. To add insult to injury, James Anderson was found not guilty when he admitted some amount of wrong doing. So, should we give up on pursuing this?

There are two schools of thought on this: one that goes “forget this distraction, focus on the game” and/or “India shouldn’t push for a ban and play the full English team for a proper win” as Farookh Engineer said yesterday.

The other school goes like this: We just lost the last test and then got kicked in the teeth with this ruling, no backing down now. And there are a couple of more reasons to why this could be a good position to take:

1. Rallying around a cause: Studies show that an overconfident sportsperson can up his or her performance by 5%, while an underconfident sportsperson’s can dip by 15-20%. India’s recent performance doesn't inspire confidence, so you should replace it with indignation and potentially, aggression. Players from the subcontinent, especially manifested by Pakistanis, do swing about on the emotional scale. When they are impassioned, their performance spikes and of course, the opposite is true as well. Indians are not very different, plus there is scientific evidence to support that spike. A 25% improvement is difficult, but Indians don't need even that much to gain an edge.
2. Colonial guilt, anyone? What happened between Anderson and Jadeja comes down to this: Anderson bullied Jadeja and got away with it. What do you to do bullies? You stand to up to them. This English team maybe quite a few generations young to feel any colonial guilt (however politically incorrect that might sound), but even if it gets two one or two players, you have a partial ‘psych-out’. Till now Indians have been rather Gandhian about their response, I think we should up the tempo. If MS Dhoni does what Michael Clarke did (out of character for the latter as well and hence very impactful), then my bet is the team will vigorously rally around him.

So apart from sledging back and sledging back hard, should the Indian team do anything else? Of course, as is obvious there are some tactical moves Dhoni/Fletcher should think about:

1. Get Ashwin in for Rohit: My bet is Ashwin will make more runs than Rohit Sharma make in the last match anyway. Any wickets he takes is an added bonus (what allows all-rounders being overlooked for MOTMs, extends to selections too). Plus he is a better slip fielder than the ones we have the cordon in the last test. That should be the clincher
2. Get Rahane in at number four: Two reasons - One, we really cant have our best performing batsman stranded without partners by the end of the innings. Let's give him enough balls and partners to get the most out of the match. Secondly, Kohli needs to fire if we want to win this game. He is been getting out because of not knowing where his off stump is on way too many occasions. Getting Rahane in before him can shield him from Anderson and Broad for a while. Allow him to come in when they are out of their juice, and belt the skin of the ball to get back in knick.
3. Get in Ishwar Pandey for Shami: With the exception of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the taller bowlers have been the most successful on this tour. That’s the reality. Pandey may not have the pace, but he can get bounce and he strives for a McGrathian sense of precision. Let's give the kid a roll.

The drama has been set up perfectly for Indians to get a psychological edge in the fourth test, flesh it out and channel it. Play with indignation, play for pride!