Now Strauss must step up and earn his money

Andrew Strauss picked Trevor Bayliss as coach because he wanted England to improve their white-ball cricket so as to be ready for the 2017 Champions Trophy and 2019 World Cup at home. Also it was said he was good at staying in the background, allowing and encouraging the players to express themselves.

Sitting quietly at the back of the dressing room can make you look like a wise man who does not panic. But this lot need some tactical help and knowledge, not just passive silence. The mindset of the team is all wrong.

James Anderson said on day four that when we get Virat Kohli back in England, where it seams and swings, they will bowl him out again. Surely when a guy bats fantastically and is a superb batsman, you need to be gracious, not dismissive. That is what many of the players think. But, sorry, the players and the team are one-dimensional, they are only good when it swings and seams.

Bayliss and Alastair Cook are the selectors on tour. Picking four seamers and two spinners when India had two seamers and three spinners, saddled England with a lopsided team. It was such a massive mistake. I learnt a long time ago that when on tour, you accept the opposition should know more about their own pitches so watch and learn from them.

Ben Stokes could have opened the bowling with Anderson, allowing England to play another spinner and another batsman. The two spinners bowled 108 overs: they were over-bowled, so became cannon fodder. There is no imagination from the coach or captain. Our cricket is predictable and based on this regimented formula of four seamers with slips and gullys waiting for the nicks.

Fresh thinking needed

That is OK at home but England need a change of thinking in Asia. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) appointed Strauss to look after English cricket. To support Cook as captain, he brutally sacked Kevin Pietersen on the day he made a triple century for Surrey and he appointed Bayliss.

It is time for our director of cricket to be honest and ask himself if he is happy with our cricket. He will not want to admit his choice of captain and coach have made mistakes. He will want to give them his full support, but this is not the time for Strauss to be stubborn. We need him to step up and earn his money.

Whoever captains in England this summer is going to take the team to Australia — so he needs seriously to think about this. Is Cook the man to take us forward? Or is it time for change? Winning the toss in India is a massive opportunity. Twice, England have won the toss and lost the match.

Quite frankly, we made the wrong selection in picking two seamers too many. England selected four seamers who bowled 59 overs between them, which is the workload for two bowlers.

Our spinners are very ordinary, and were totally outbowled by the opposition. They bowl too slowly to be successful in India and cannot put pressure on the batsmen because they bowl too many freebies.

On top of that is cautious captaincy. Cook has been like that all his career. We have got away with it with Test match wins in England because we have a format of keeping three slips and a gullys to a fine array of fast-medium bowlers. Cook at times produces inexplicable captaincy.

Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid bowled 15 and 16 overs respectively, unchanged, without taking a wicket while 69 runs were scored. Cook did not change the bowling and when he went off, Root took over, put himself on and took two wickets. When nothing is happening, you need to try something different.

England have made elementary mistakes playing spin. When it spins, batsmen need to judge length and get right forward to kill the spin, or right back and watch the ball turn. Kohli made a comment I agreed with. He said you need a “good defence against our bowlers in India and England’s batsmen did not have enough faith to take their innings long”. England were one spinner short and he said when batting that he saw their two spinners were tired and were bowling to stop India scoring rather than bowling to take wickets.

I rest my case. Alastair is kidding himself and his team if thinks they came close to matching India.

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2016