The ebbs and flows of England's futuristic spin trio

The India versus England series has still been iconic despite the Indians getting the better of the visitors at home. England might have given the hosts a bit of a shock in the first game in Hyderabad, but it has still been a series where India have been dominant.

The cricketing fraternity and beyond would have heard about how the Indian side has performed in the series and has won hearts, but it is also time we dig deep into England’s performance.

The visitors will still have another chance to prove themselves in the fifth Test in Dharamshala with the conditions a little similar back home, however, let us look back at some of the pros and cons of the team.

The England batting has been a bit of debate, where there have been only glimpses of brilliance. However, let us also take a moment to look at how the bowlers have faired.

Unprejudiced, it looked like the English pacers still showed some decent performances regardless of the conditions opposite to their nature but it was the spinners, who were supposed to play a big role in this Test series. 

England spin attack, a mixed-bag

The last time England had won a series in India was back in 2012 when they had the likes of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann making even the best players of spin look average. After their retirements, England have been struggling to find a quality spin attack in Test cricket.

After the likes of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were sidelined, it looked even tougher for England to get the perfect spin attack. The India series saw three young and inexperienced spinners play their first series in these conditions. The injury to Jack Leach might have hurt England a little bit, there was a lot of promise.

Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir were far from being underwhelming. In fact, Hartley is currently the highest wicket-taker in the series. Even the likes of Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed showed they are capable of taking crucial wickets in the middle. Consistency is the one thing that stopped them from being the complete bowlers in the longest format and the difference that made the Indian spinners threatening throughout the whole series keeping the England batters quiet.

The young trio had everything they needed, where Bashir could turn the ball, Hartley had the natural drift and Rehan had his fair share of variations. They might have been doing well in the wickets column, but in some of the moments, they failed to keep the batters quiet.

The economy rate and average of the bowlers were pretty high as well. Hartley, Bashir and Rehan have been going at above three runs an over which is quite high for Test matches.

So the verdict is that these three spinners do have something that could make them a prospect, but they were underprepared. Hartley, Bashir and Rehan still have a lot to improve in the longest format.

It is safe to say with this series, England have not found a hundred per cent solution in the spin department and are still scratching the surface a bit.

Preparation is one massive thing that hurt England where they had to deal with some products, which were not ready to be tested in the market. With a bit of time, these bowlers could go on to be England's matchwinners, and it is just that extra need of discipline and patience that they will need in the game.