During his two years as the Indian captain between 2005 and 2007, Rahul Dravid scored many memorable victories. Under his leadership, India ended barren runs in the Caribbean and England, registering their first Test series win in the West Indies in 35 years in 2006 and then with their first series win in 21 years at Old Blighty, when they won 1 – 0 wins in 2007.
India also vigorously shed their tag as dodgy chasers in 50-over cricket, registering an unprecedented 16 victories on a bouncy second batting.
And yet, Dravid’s fate is such that his captaincy tenure will be remembered primarily for the team’s first round exit at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.
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It is unlikely that the Indian team of 2021 will have a similar fate. Of course, they did eat their T20 World Cup campaign in the United Arab Emirates in October-November, failing to progress beyond the group stage after consecutive defeats to Pakistan and New Zealand. At the very beginning of the competition. But even a cursory look at the balance sheet shows that, despite that setback, there are more entries in blue than in red, especially in Test cricket.
In keeping with their commitment to the longer format, India played 14 Tests – the final Test in England to be rescheduled for the summer of 2022 following a Covid scare in the Indian camp – eight of which were away from home. Under first stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane and then Virat Kohli, India registered eight wins, three losses and three were involved in stalemates. Those are cool facts. As is the norm, these numbers do not tell the whole story.
Four of their eight victories came overseas as India swept Australia, England and South Africa in the same calendar year for the second time in four years. In 2018, those victories came in Johannesburg, Nottingham and Adelaide. This time around, India ruled in sanctioned strongholds in Australia and South Africa, becoming the first side since 1988 to sport an Australian beard in its Gabba fort and the first Asian country to visit Trump in Centurion, where the Proteas lost. encountered. Only three Tests in 27 since his re-entry in 1991.
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In themselves, these are monumental achievements. They talk about the resilience, adaptability, and outstanding skills of a group that doesn’t know what it means to take a backward step. They are testimony to India’s burning desire to be as far away from home as it is in the comfort zone of her backyard. They are the culmination of a sea change in the Indian mindset since 2017, when a studied, deliberate and perceptive shift towards agglomeration of speed resources was undertaken.
That they ushered in an era of suppressed bio-secure bubbles, the fallout of the raging pandemic that still shows little sign of easing, makes India’s Test march through 2021 even more compelling.
The first indication that it might be a year in for a taste came in the traditional pink Test against the Aussies in Sydney in early January. Even the most ardent Indian supporter feared a hammer of epic proportions after a 36-run all-out meltdown in the first match of the pink-ball series in Adelaide in December last year, following which Kohli was home on paternity leave. came back. By the end of that Test, Mohammed Shami was also ruled out with a broken arm, meaning that in one stroke, India had lost two crucial, experienced influencers against a full-strength Aussies.
Enter Rahane, step left. The Mumbaikar is no stranger to filling in for Kohli, but few expected him to take the rabbits out of the hat. Remarkably, Rahane did exactly that.
With centuries over the centuries, Rahane masterminded a spirited revival in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, propelling the team to series-level wins, against all odds. As it turned out, it was only an appetizer before the main course.
In January, India became the toast and envy of the cricketing world with two scintillating performances. In Sydney, Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin, with their backs sprained so badly that they were afraid to sit down lest they get up, defied Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon for more than three times when All seemed lost then hours to pull off a spectacular draw. This set the stage for a grand finale in Brisbane, the most impregnable fort in the whole of Australia.
By the time India reached the Gabba, they had lost more than half their original starts. Kohli and Shami were accompanied by Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Vihari and Ashwin. The Indian bowling attack for Tests had two debutants – T Natarajan and Washington Sundar – and combined experience of less than 10 games. Being a competitor, he had no business. Luckily, no one told them this.
With Mohammad Siraj, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Sundar and Shardul Thakur taking forward the youth’s ambition, and buoyed by the experience of the indomitable Cheteshwar Pujara, India mounted a surprise attack on a record fourth-innings target of 328. By the time the dust settled, even the hard-working Aussies could not help taking their cap off despite a three-wicket win. India’s 2-1 win in Australia in 2018-19 cast an asterisk in his favour. After all, the Aussies were without David Warner and Steve Smith.
This second consecutive victory did not come with any such rider. With all due respect to the class of 2001, this must go as India’s biggest series win ever.
Within days of arriving from Australia, India bounced back from a first Test defeat against England to secure a 3–1 victory to seal their place in the inaugural World Test Championship final against New Zealand in Southampton in June. . As far as ICC trophies went, a one-sided Test loss was the first harbinger of another barren year, but it was a distraction until India’s fast bowlers put England through the ringer at Lord’s and The Oval. Didn’t seem like more.
While three home victories against Joe Root’s men were scored by spinners Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel, overseas wins were due to a fast pace attack with Shami and Bumrah, Siraj a capable savvy and Thakur well into the role of fourth seamer. slipped off. As the seeds sown by Kohli, head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach B Arun sprouted into fruit trees in 2017, the brain’s confident foresight and clever planning manifest themselves in epoch-making overseas victories that Indian teams and fans have struggled with in the past. could afford. dream of
In this backdrop, the crisis that the T20 World Cup had faced is a sad one. Mentally and physically exhausted from going into direct competition upon the completion of the second leg of IPL 2021, India were limp, tame and timid against Pakistan and New Zealand, unrecognizable as an all-conquering Test force. Were. Kohli had already announced his decision to step down from T20 captaincy after the tournament, as did Shastri, Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar. A new era awaits.
Unsurprisingly, Rohit Sharma – along with his rejuvenated opening partner KL Rahul for the Indian batting in England – was promoted as T20 captain. By the end of the year, Rohit had replaced Kohli as the ODI captain as well. The BCCI’s handling of this captaincy swap left much to be desired with board president Sourav Ganguly and Kohli providing contrasting accounts as the events unfolded. An uneasy ceasefire has been put in place for now, but who can say this powder keg won’t explode anytime soon.
The BCCI achieved some glory by persuading Dravid to replace Shastri. Despite his initial reluctance, Dravid is naturally fit. He oversaw the Under-19 and ‘A’ teams for four years from 2015, with many of his dependents now in the senior team and India rapidly approaching the brink of transition. Dravid’s firm, steady guiding hand could not have lent itself to a greater purpose at a more opportune time.
History will tell that in 2021 India was run by youth brigade. Yes, experienced hands went ahead with Ashwin leading Harbhajan Singh as India’s third-highest Test wicket-taker with Shami and Bumrah in their grip. Rohit rose to his height as a Test opener with defined performances in England and Rahul showed the folly of ignoring his class for two years, but it was Pant, Siraj and Shreyas Iyer who shone the brightest. His coming of age has fueled optimism that 2021 is not an end in itself, only the beginning of a new era.
That being said, some of the more established names are on borrowed time. Ishant Sharma, Pujara and Rahane have been wielding reputations for a while now, and with a hungry, motivated pack snapping at their heels, it is impossible not to envisage the passing of the baton in the immediate future. Kohli himself has struggled to make a meaningful contribution, going 25 months without an international century and threatening to slip into the bad habits of 2014 when he scored just 134 runs in 10 innings in England. What a coup it would be if he could rediscover his famous single-mindedness and lead India to their maiden series win in South Africa!
Speaking of the coup, Ganguly and BCCI secretary Jay Shah gave VVS Laxman a second shout-out in two months for accepting the role of head – cricket at the National Cricket Academy, a position vacated by Dravid. It is this Dravid-Lakshman off-field partnership that Indian cricket will look like as it seeks to ensure that the present is perfect, the future is stress free.
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