Responding to the Summer of 36 and a few other views!

I am sure there are days in everyone’s life which doesn’t go according to a plan and some things are stumbled upon; and then there are days which one just tries hard to forget- the days to forget. December, 19th will be hallmarked in India’s test cricket for outright contradictory reasons. In 2016- India produced the highest test total on this day with a score of 759/7 and 4 years down the line, in this tragic year by all sorts, the Indian Cricket Team gifted it’s audiences with a morning of horror (IST) and an afternoon of horror (AST) by hitting their ever lowest total in an inning in test cricket. So what had conspired before this happened?

With all the build up to this particular cricket series specially about the brand of cricket that we expect to get to see. More so this year because it was the first time India were going to play a Pink Ball test match against Australia in Australia and for all familial reasons, this is going to be the only test match he plays in the series this year. It’s obvious people will talk about it. Virat Kohli in the pre-match conference had said that his personality is an embodiment of the New India and am sure we all partly or fully agree to it. He sure embarks upon the journey to bring out the best in his team as he himself prepares to give the best every time he takes to the field. In the post match conference- he stayed optimistic that it was something that they will learn from and “nothing is alarming” as yet and harped on the fact that they “lacked intent”. As much as I want to agree with the fact that nothing is alarming, there are not a lot of people who does so. Hence the dissection is required.

What did India do until the collapse?

India began the test match on a cautious note, scoring less than 2 runs per over for majority part of their first innings. Issues have cropped up with Prithvi Shaw; being bowled in the scores of 0 and 4 in respective innings didn’t help his cause. Punter did a critical analysis of him supplementing with an observation that his front foot is not grounded when he is playing the shot, suggesting that he is late in transferring his body weight and hence it creates that gap between his bat and pad. Technical adjustments are always a part of anyone’s game at the highest level specially playing in foreign conditions where the bounce in the strip is the first observable change. High back lift as preferred by most batsmen these days also creates a problem as the batsmen can difficulty in getting their bats down in the right time, specially if the back lift is away from the body, it gets easier if the lift is close to the body which gives the bat a much straighter trajectory coming down towards the ball- something Mayank Agarwal needs to work on. The question of paramount importance is the fact that will India persist with these opening pair in the upcoming test matches? Personally speaking, Prithvi Shaw isn’t still ready for Test matches at the highest level. More Ranji trophy games and international matches in domestic conditions shall give him some more confidence to perform consistently in SENA nations. Mayank specially with Shikhar Dhawan not being in the squad will be given more chances and and should be for the sake of the future. Chetashwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane got gem of a ball in the second innings. The ball was landed right in that nagging area between short and good length and the fact that the Australian bowlers kept bowling consistently in the stumps subsequently making the batsmen play, did the trick. Personally observing, Wriddhiman Saha in the first innings and Virat Kohli in the second innings got out chasing a ball that they actually should have left alone. All the other batsmen who were caught behind by Paine were actually a victim of good bowling. They were in no position to leave those deliveries. So we can’t say that our batsmen got out by playing rash shots except the one by Kohli, in which he actually came forward and played that shot much outside the off stump.

On the other side it is important to understand what does “lacking intent” mean. I am not very sure that the meaning of intent remains the same in different formats of cricket. As far as Test Cricket is concerned, the intent needs to be shown in every phase of the game. Not only in a couple of sessions but every small period of the play. India basically lost the test match in 40 minutes of play in Day 3 of a test match, a Day which is the known to be the most pivotal day in the context of a Test Match being decisive. If there is somewhere where India lacked intent is in their fielding efforts– with as many as five-six catches going down in the Australian inning. Let us all imagine Labuschange being out either in 12 or 21, and Time Paine being out around 30 with Australia reeling at 111/8; in short in such matches where the lead is slender (<80) can often put the team ahead in a not so pleasant complacent state from where they might think that they are very well ahead in the game than others. Something Kohli did mention in his post match interview. Certainly in matches with such good bowling opposition, a good lead is always good, but does it always matter? No. Because the same team had faced the same bowlers in the 2018 season and had produced a winning result in the same ground. What was the difference? The lengths that the bowlers bowled, and the biggest factor that it was being played with a Pink-Ball and not a Red Ball. Similar results and consecutive losses in test match cricket by India in the last decade, had often raised the questions of “Lack of application” specially for the batsmen and wasn’t much about the intent. An example from few years ago, South Africa had visited India and in a traditional dust bowl compounded with being a square turner, RSA were looking to avoid a humongous defeat. RSA still lost that match by a margin close to 340 runs. Hashim Amla and AB De Villiers played above 200 deliveries each scoring only some odd runs in 20s before eventually succumbing. They showed application more than intent. It was about biting time and tiring out the bowlers of the opposition. Sometimes test cricket is all about biting time. Something Harsha Bhogle mentioned in his friendly conversation with Adam Collins where he mentioned that India in all these one sided losses has lacked a circuit breaker- someone who would be able to put that foot down. Something that has happened as many as 6 times this year in 3 test matches; 44 runs on an average after the fall of 5 wickets in 6 innings across 3 test matches. In the last visit- Che Pu, Vihari, Kohli and Rahane did from time to time specially Che Pu doing it more consistently than the others. India certainly needs their batsmen to take more accountability despite showing respect to some very good bowling and take it from there.

Trends in Indian Cricket…..

Something else that has happened consistently with Indian cricket over the last two years is how the tail of the opposition has destroyed the advantage that India had gained by bowling the rest of the batsmen out. In the period between 2018-2020- Indian bowlers had failed to clean the tail up 7 times in 2018 against South Africa and England and thrice in 2020 against New Zealand and Australia with the average runs being leaked around 100 for the last 3 wickets, sometimes as high as 160 runs for just 3 or 4 wickets. Something which pairs like Mitchell Starc or Cummins or Trent Boult/ Southee or Anderson/Broad isn’t giving, irrespective of the conditions. So we see a pattern which has emerged. India has failed to provide late impetus to their innings if their main batsmen fold early and subsequently their oppositions do exactly the opposite and drive home the advantage India had gained. On an immediate layman observation it suggests that India lacks proper all-rounders in test cricket and also bowlers can’t really hang around. Both the facts are mutually exclusive it is something that has hurt India in repeated occasions. Virat Kohli had told along with Ravi Shastri after their 3-1 defeat against England in 2018, that even though the scorecard showed such devastating results their actual game was much better. Well, that is not a good justification as to why a team would fail to bundle out their opposition after being in the driver seat for majority of the innings. Something that even happened in this match with the Australian team scoring 82 runs for the last 3 wickets. As a very optimistic cricket enthusiast, this is the biggest concern and alarming thing that needs immediate correction.

India also didn’t help the cause by selecting a team in which there were no batters or bowlers who were left handed. Something that made the life of the Australian bowlers just easier. They had to just continuously bowl one line and length. It is a known fact that left handed players specially batters bring some dynamism in the team. A left hand-right hand batting combinations applies indirect pressure on the opposition bowlers where they have to constantly change their lines they bowl which was completely absent in this Indian side. Bizarre!

What lies ahead?

What lies ahead is a test of character. With the World Test Championship (WTC) in place, it is imperative that India should make a comeback in MCG before it is too late to turn things around. History suggest they can do so. Kolkata in 2001, Adelaide in 2003/04, MCG in 2018, Lords in 2014, Wellington in 2009, I guess. So India needs to make their players and moves count right from the time they go to MCG. On a brighter side, they got 2 days extra to go to Melbourne and get accustomed for some classical red ball game. They should be able to shrug off this as a Black Day, and probably should also read where the Australian bowlers are bowling consistently. Something that needs the most critical analysis at this point. Pat Cummins bowled just 4% of his balls outside off stump inclusive of both his efforts in the iconic Adelaide Oval. Those 4% were basically the balls which were comfortably left alone. Let’s all bloody imagine that stat for a minute. Glenn McGrath in an earlier interview had once told that it is the bowlers who win you test matches more often than not; well one can’t argue much as we have seen India lose matches based solely on this fact on more than one occasion in recent times.

As far as a possible playing XI is concerned for MCG, here is my list:

Subhman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Chetashwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Rishab Pant, Hardik Pandya/ Vihari, Ashwin, Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini and even in this list I get just Pant as left handed player. I would have actually loved Jadeja to play instead of Pandya/ Vihari, but alas for concussion.

P.S. The views expressed here are completely based on author’s own rationalization which are also in agreement with cricketing stalwarts all over the country and in the world.