Cometh the hour, Cometh the men – the comeback kings are here again

India always tends to play badly at the start of the series. This is something I observed over the years as a fan. This was particularly true when India went to tour the SENA nations (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia). Multiple times India lost series 1-0 in test matches in these countries and when you check the record books, you will find that the first test match was lost. So it’s clear that India improves their performance dramatically over the series but the loss in the first match generally becomes the difference!

Right after IPL 2020, the Indian team travelled to Australia. The tour started with a 3 match ODI series. As was the norm Australia out batted India in the first match and it was repeated in the second match too. Within a span of 2 days the first series of the tour was lost. But as is the norm with India, they came back strongly winning the inconsequential third ODI, and took the momentum forward by winning the next two T20 matches to win the T20 series.

The Test series followed and India had one of the worst days in their cricketing history when they were bowled out for 36 runs to hand themselves an unforgettable loss of face. The critics were out with many ex-cricketers predicting a 4-0 loss for India. But as has been chronicled many times over, India changed the course of the series by winning 2 of the last 3 matches and drawing another. The critics were left searching for cover as India breached the Gabba for the first time in 32 years to win the series 2-1.

A come-from-behind series victory when everyone wrote them off showed the mental strength of this cricket team and a lot of credit must go to the coaching staff led by Ravi Shastri.

England was in India for a series of tests, T20s, and ODI matches. India was in a high after beating Australia in Australia. And once again a series started with England demolishing India by a big margin! The critics were out once again with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane facing a lot of wrath on social media for their failures. But as has been the norm in recent times, once again India came back strongly and won the next 3 matches to win the series 3-1.

A lot of talks went behind the back about the pitch conditions but as could be judged from the matches, England won tosses, batted first but still lost. The fact was that they struggled against the Indian spinners and the English spinners weren’t able to sustain continuous pressure on the Indian batsmen. The Indian tail which generally crumbled under pressure came up with superlative performances whenever things looked rosy for the opposition. 

The T20 series followed next. England the current 50 over world champions and the top-ranked side in T20 cricket held all the aces. Their first XI was available and with the T20 World Cup to be staged later in India, it was perfect timing to let the world know why they are the favourites to win. India on the other hand was handicapped with many in their bowling unit not available. Bumrah was not available due to his marriage, while Shami and Jadeja both were yet to be fit due to injuries. Jadeja in particular helps India get a perfect balance due to his all-round abilities and his unavailability made a huge difference to the Indian side. Bhubaneswar Kumar was coming back after a few months due to his injury lay off. So for India, this tournament was more of seeing how the youngsters perform so that they could get their playing XI set up for the World T20. 

I was unable to watch the first match due to an office get-together but followed it on Cricinfo. Some of my colleagues had their HOTSTAR streaming live but I quickly moved away from that because India was down 3 wickets before the power play overs were completed. To be very frank other than the audacious reverse flick sixer by Pant against Jofra archer there was not much to write home about. Before the start of the match, there were talks of Surya Kumar Yadav replacing Shreyas Iyer but it was Iyer who kept the innings together with his half-century. But India’s score of 124 runs would have never been enough and England won quite easy to take the lead in the 5 match series.

Once again a series started with India losing the first match pretty horribly but there was no reason to believe that India couldn’t come back strongly. The dew in the latter half of the first match made the toss very vital. Batting seemed easier in the second half. Of course, India was without some of their main bowlers and that affected the team performance too.

India rang in the changes in the second match. They handed debut caps to Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav – two top performers in IPL for Mumbai Indians. India went in with a bowler short and it seemed a very risky strategy. Thankfully Virat won the toss and India had the opportunity to chase. The strategy of playing with 5 bowlers was too much of a risk when you are defending a total but with India batting second it looked relatively better. But then England had to be kept under 175 runs for team India to chase down. Indian bowlers rose to the occasion and especially in the middle overs they strangled the opposition with smart slower balls and the final momentum which is required in any T20 match went missing for England due to the loss of important wickets in the middle overs. The spinners struggled but the pacers bowled quite well to keep England within 165 runs. 

India opened with Rahul and Kishan and though Rahul failed, Kishan didn’t show any nerves that are generally seen with a debutant. The IPL has been a great addition to the Indian cricket calendar and these new players having played against the top players in IPL had no qualms facing the English bowlers. Ishan Kishan showed great skills especially the pull shots and the front foot off drives. A debut half-century followed. Virat Kohli also got into the groove scoring a fluent half-century to take India home. It was great to see, Virat calling Kishan on stage to share his man of the match moment. After all, it was Kishan who wrestled the momentum for India in this match.

The third match followed a couple of days later. India lost the toss and the 5 bowler strategy had to backfire with India defending. Though Virat scored another fluent half-century, 156 runs was never enough to defend. With the dew making the spinners redundant and with no backup of bowlers, England won in a canter by 8 wickets. Butler made the Indian bowlers feel like club cricketers with his audacious hitting all around the wicket. The momentum was back with England and they looked all set to take the series. 

Virat Kohli never had a good time at tosses and with the amount of dew we had in the matches, it was quite clear that the team batting second had a distinct advantage. There is a saying that you can do well only on things you can control and to be fair, the toss was never in control of anyone. It’s pure luck. So India had to do things in the cricketing field better, letting tosses not control their destiny.

The fourth match was a do-or-die situation for India. India lost the toss once again and just like in previous matches India had to bat first. They persisted with their 5 bowler theory which was a very risky strategy. First thing first though – India needed to bat well. Taking dew into consideration the minimum that India needed to score was 180. Anything below that was advantageous for England. One of the reasons that India went with such a big batting lineup was for the team to play fearless cricket. If you play to save wickets it won’t help the cause so the ideal strategy was to go after the bowling from the word go. That’s how India started this time around with Rohit hitting a sixer off Adil Rashid in the very first ball. Though he perished the next over, Surya Kumar Yadav pulled the first ball nonchalantly for a six. He continued in the same zest and only a controversial catch got him out. He of course crossed the half-century mark before that. The England pace bowlers especially, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer bowled very well but the other bowlers were taken for plenty with Pant and Iyer giving a big impetus to the Indian score at the fag end. India finished at 185 runs which was just above par in Ahmedabad.

India needed to bowl well because dew made the spinners a lottery. India had two of them. Though India started well picking up Butler and Malan quickly, the England middle-order batsmen especially Ben Stokes brought them back into the game. The Indian spinners were taken for plenty but Shardul Thakur in the space of two balls picked up both Stokes and Morgan to bring India back into the game. Shardul Thakur always has this happy knack of picking up wickets and that day his over changes the complexion of the match. He tends to go for a lot of runs but his smart usage of slower ball variations gets his wickets and it was no different that day too. India was able to win defending a total and that too with only 5 bowlers at their disposal. Hardik Pandya’s bowling effort of 2/16 in 4 overs was very handy for the Indian team.

With the series hanging in the balance it was all to play for in Ahmedabad yesterday. India finally decided to take the extra bowler in the decider sacrificing KL Rahul who till then had been having a very ordinary series with the bat. How things change over a period of a couple of months. From being India’s first-choice opener and wicket-keeper he finds himself out of the team. Rishabh Pant’s spectacular rise in the last few months has been the chief reason for the same.

India once again lost the toss and they decided to make a smart change up in the order with Virat opening with Rohit Sharma. You will hardly find a series in the last few years where Rohit has had a quiet series. He had to play a defining knock and he chose the series decider to do that. Each of the bowlers was given the same treatment as Virat Kohli looked on from the other end. Rohit is in all probability world’s best executioner of the pull shot and there were plenty on display yesterday. When Rohit is on song it’s always difficult to keep the scoreboard stagnant and though he got out in the 9th over there was no let-up in the intensity from the Indian side. In the earlier match, Surya Kumar Yadav hit the first ball for six, here he hit the second ball for a six. Virat was also in full flow and when a superlative effort from Jordan brought the end of Surya Kumar Yadav, it was Hardik Pandya of hold who took the English bowlers to the cleaners. If 180 was the par score then this match was as good as over because India ended up scoring 224 runs.

Dawid Malan is the world’s top T20 batsman but his performance in the last 4 matches was nowhere near to the potential he possessed. But like Rohit, he took the final match to show his class. He along with Buttler made the Indian bowling attack pedestrian. The addition of an extra bowler helped though because without Natarajan it would have been a very sorry day for Washington Sundar. After all, Buttler was in some mood yesterday.

T20 is a batsman’s game and in a high-scoring encounter if there is a bowler who keeps the runs in check makes the difference between both the teams. Bhuvi was the man for India yesterday. His third over of the match wherein he sent back Jos Buttler changed the complexion of the match. Shardul Thakur followed Bhuvi by picking up Malan in the next over. The asking rate kept climbing up and though the England lower order hit some lusty blows at the end the match was as good as over. India won by a pretty comfortable margin of 36 runs. In a match where over 400 runs were scored, Bhuvi returned figures of 2/16 in his 4 overs – the real differentiator between the two teams.

A series that started with India scoring 124 runs ended with them scoring 224 runs and the margin of victory 36 runs brought back the memories of Adelaide where the Indian team was bowled out for 36. Sometimes ” 36 ” is not that bad a number after all.

Another series in which India started on the wrong foot ended with them lifting the series. Coming from the back and winning these important matches has now become a habit for this team. But it all starts in the mind. When the mind is clear and the spirit is high you can do unthinkable things. It’s the positive mentality- it’s the winning mentality that spurs few individuals to go above their means to establish wonderful things and this Indian team has shown the world just that. What if the best XI is not available- it doesn’t matter because each individual believes in his ability to back their strengths and make a difference to the team.

This is how winning teams are built. It’s a team game and each individual contributes towards the team goal. Kudos to this spirit and I hope India continues to grow in strength because two very important occasions are coming up this year – the WTC finals in June and the WT20 in October. I hope India wins both. The country is waiting.

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