A series that had been touted as England’s ‘Bazball’ versus India’s ‘Spinball’ was supposed to be a cliffhanger, but petered out into one of the most embarrassing damp squibs for England. In the end, 'Jazball' came into the limelight. India’s Spinball did alright, but England are looking to dig a hole and cover themselves with earth.
Test cricket is an unforgiving format and players are found out easily unlike other hit-and-giggle formats. This is an arena where reputations are made, and broken and careers buried. England’s batting stars built a cult around them and oozed an aura of invincibility that brooked no nonsense. But, to beat India in India is a task of Himalayan proportions as South Africa and Australia, two of the best test-playing nations in the world, found out.
As is their wont, England were smug, and overconfident with their approach… not to mention rigid. They had no skills to counter Bumrah and the spin trio of Ashwin, Kuldeep, and Jadeja. Neither did their bowlers have the skills to dislodge Jaiswal, Rohit, Gill, and the lesser batsmen.
It was an irony that they won the first test despite being behind the eight-ball for most of the time. When you look at that particular test match closely, it was India that gifted the match, on a platter, to the Bazballers. England must thank their cricketing gods that they escaped from being thoroughly whitewashed and hanging from a line (I guess, at least, some of their cricketers’ careers are hanging on a line).
The English Bazballers had just one gear in their batting crank box and that was top gear. That’s one of the reasons that their engine stuttered and coughed at low speeds, sometimes stalling altogether. In test cricket, you need the patience to wait for the bad ball and the ability to put that away to the boundary when it comes. For that, you need an impregnable defence and unwavering focus. They were also so rigid in their approach that when their stock approach failed, they had no Plan B.
I doff my hat to the Indian team which actually played like a team, cohesive in their batting and incisive in their bowling. When things were not working out they had Plans B and C, and the aptitude to implement them. That is the sign of a formidable world-beating team. We are not even discussing Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohd. Shami, and Hardik Pandya. Hence, this thumping series victory is that much more sweet.
Though there were memorable performances from many Indian players, one man stood out for his confidence, sheer ability, ruthlessness, and gumption for big scores – Yashasvi Jaiswal. He was the one who set the tone with his Sehwagesque style of batting. That was the difference between the two teams though one might add that Indian spin was far superior to what England had to offer.
India is by far the most consistent side in Test cricket and has the credentials to show. It’s just sheer bad luck that they couldn’t win the finals on the last two occasions. Time will heal those wounds, and victory will be much sweeter.
In the end, Rohit’s calm and imaginative captaincy proved to be much more effective than Stokes’ rigid and rudderless approach.
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