vallierojas: Five things we learned from England's 4-0 series win over India

Ian Bell and Stuart Broad have proved themselves once and for all, and the IPL is undermining India's Test chances

1 Coaches don't always work

Duncan Fletcher has looked the most impotent coach since that steaming Leyland you passed on the M1's hard shoulder. While Andy Flower is lauded, quite rightly, for leading England to the summit of the world game India's Fletcher is an example of how helpless the coach is when he simply has not got the players to work with. Or when systems and attitudes are wrong. The same can be said of India's bowling coach, Eric Simmons, and their fielding coach, Trevor Penney, who must have been disenchanted by the sight of Virender Sehwag, fielding at short mid-on, mooching about with his hands in his pockets as the bowler approached the crease. Fletcher must have been salivating at the prospect of taking charge of the No1 Test side in the world, a team who had just lifted the World Cup. But India have been so comprehensively outplayed in this series, despite Monday's brief fight-back, that Fletcher, with his wobbly chops and inscrutable eyes, now realises that he is in for a long haul of a job. If he is given the chance, that is.

2 Bell can bat at No3

Ian Bell has made no secret of the fact that he wants to bat at first drop for England. The only trouble is that Jonathan Trott, the regular in that position, has a Test batting average of 57.59, which puts him just ahead of Garry Sobers and just behind the immortal Wally Hammond in the top 10 batsmen of all time. But after his recent century and double century Bell has proved to everyone that he can bat in that position, where he so often failed when he was a younger and less accomplished player. The tease for England is that Bell, who is able to take the bowling by the scruff of the neck much better than the one-dimensional Trott, would probably be a better player in that position. When Trott returns to the side in the new year Bell is likely to fall back to his old No5 slot. But at least the selectors now know that Bell can play there if Trott is injured again. A more likely scenario, a year or two down the line, is that the captain, Andrew Strauss, who has not been at his most prolific recently, will drop out of the side. That would allow Trott to open and Bell the chance to emulate his role model, Ricky Ponting.

3 Broad is the real deal

Against Sri Lanka earlier in the summer Stuart Broad could scarcely buy a wicket. He was bowling too short, perhaps carried away by being described as England's "enforcer" by the bowling coach David Saker. He certainly unsettled Michael Clarke in the winter's Ashes series with some well-directed bouncers. But that is not really what Broad is about. He is a "pitch it up to hit the top of off-stump" sort of bowler and he was reminded of the fact by England's real enforcer, the chief coach Andy Flower. Broad was told, quite directly, that he would not be selected unless he bowled according to instructions. Since then he has emerged as perhaps England's outstanding player in the series. He has shown against India that he deserved his old place back as Jimmy Anderson's new ball partner after Chris Tremlett had nudged him to one side. But Broad has not only done it with the ball in this series. He has also played a couple of match-turning innings and at his best is a difficult batsman to bowl to. He could still emerge as the all-rounder many people said he would become when he was just a stripping at Leicestershire.

4 KP is back

Some people have always had doubts about Kevin Pietersen, partly because he is a complete one-off, a most singular cricketer. But those doubts have been shared by more people in the past two years, when the player has often under-performed in both Test and one-day cricket, certainly by the standards of his early, stunning inroads into the international game. The fall-off in performance coincided with his loss of the England captaincy following his fallout with the then coach, Peter Moores. But there were also niggling concerns about his fitness. Pietersen has dispelled the doubts on both fronts. He has never trained harder or looked fitter. And he has been England's leading run-scorer, despite some keen competition from Ian Bell and Alastair Cook. He has rarely batted with a greater sense of responsibility, such as in the first half of his double century at Lord's which set the tone for England's 4-0 whitewash. But, as he showed in his innings at The Oval, the old flamboyance is still there, and when he plays that way he is one of the most destructive batsmen in the world.

5 IPL is bad for India's Test side

No one seems to be taking responsibility for India's pathetic showing in this series. Saying how well England played is just not good enough, but top of the list must come the Indian Premier League. It has wearied India's players and distracted their minds. The trouble with the confused priorities of India is that if they now go on to win the ODI series a lot of people will forget the Test result. So the IPL has not only downgraded the performances of India's Test players, it has also debased the integrity of the five-day game. Rahul Dravid, India's outstanding player and man in this series, hinted at the damage wrought by IPL when he said that there were a lot of good ball-strikers in India but that Test cricket was a mental game. But India's malaise goes deeper than the IPL. Can Amit Mishra really be the second best spinner in India? Surely not, when he looked a better batsman than bowler. And where are the long-term replacements for Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman? And what of the fast bowling, if RP Singh, a pale shadow of his old self, can get a game? This series revealed deep flaws in the India side.

Paul Weaver

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