Rahul Dravid doesn’t play the comparison game, so he refrained from rating the 4-1 drubbing of England as the most satisfying result of his tenure as India’s head coach. But in private, the former captain will admit to massive pride not just at the scoreline, but the manner in which it was fashioned.
India are the most difficult side to conquer in their own backyard. Their last series defeat was to England in 2012-13, the last time a visiting side won two matches in a series. In the intervening 11 years, India have lost a mere four home Tests – two each to England and Australia – and won 16 series on the bounce. They have been dominant, commanding, mesmeric, unchallenged.
It’s a record India are gung-ho about, but that record appeared on shaky ground six weeks back in Hyderabad, after they found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Despite a 190-run advantage, they allowed Ollie Pope to rack up 196 and made a hash of a target of 230. It was a chastening eye-opener, exacerbated by the fact that, already without Virat Kohli for the entire series, they would have to make do without the services for the second Test of KL Rahul (who eventually missed the last four games) and Ravindra Jadeja, two of their more experienced and proven performers.
What India got right - 5 debuts in a single series
So much has been written of England’s young spinners – Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed – fronting up manfully. But less celebrated has been the role of India’s newcomers, who have stepped in and filled gaping breaches with the ease of a virtuoso. Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal and Akash Deep looked like they believed they belong at the Test level. Only Rajat Patidar failed to come up trumps, owing to a combination of some poor decision-making and plenty of bad fortune.
These five made their debuts over the last four Tests, the joint most debutants India have had in the last 90 years. While they are all reasonably experienced first-class players, Test cricket is an entirely different cup of tea. It can reduce the toughest, most accomplished and self-assured of individuals to blundering wrecks; it can spawn the dance of a million butterflies in the stomach. It can spark leaden feet and heavy forearms. The bat can suddenly weigh a thousand pounds, the pitch might start to appear a mile long. Test cricket is not easy.
Dravid should know, right? After all, he played 164 of them in a career spanning 15 and a half years. Actually, he didn’t just play. He performed. Outstandingly well. 13,288 runs, 36 centuries, a highest of 270, an average of 52.3. Against some of the greatest bowlers to have graced the sport. And he goes, “These kids today, they are 22-23, they are so confident when they come in to the Indian team. They have so much self-belief, they are so self-assured. When I was that age, when I went on my first Test tour of England (1996), I had hardly had any exposure, just a few ‘A’ tours and Under-19 games. The current generation has had so many more opportunities, and to their credit, they have made the most of those chances.”
What India got right - backing young players, including Yashasvi Jaiswal
Apart from the debutants, India had one batsman who was four Tests young (Yashasvi Jaiswal), and he rose to the challenge with successive double hundreds on his way to 712 series runs and the Player of the Series Award. And another (Shubman Gill) who was grappling with the demands of batting at No. 3 and struggling for form at the start of the skirmishes but finished with more than 400 runs including two centuries.
With these resources, how did India end up on the right side of the 4-1 result? How did they post four totals (in nine innings) in excess of 400?
Because their newcomers, reared on the back of a robust, competitive and rewarding domestic structure, had their hearts in the right place and their techniques in right order. Because, while they might have lived out their entire young lives in the T20 era, they are not products of that format. Because, they have the hunger and the aptitude and the skills for the longest version. And because, they know that there is so much competition for places that while they won’t be judged on a couple of performances, it is imperative to seize their chances so that they don’t keep dropping down the pecking order.
Sarfaraz responded with three half-centuries (including two on debut) in his first five innings. Jurel was stunning in his first game in Rajkot and the game-breaker in the next in Ranchi, both in front of and behind the sticks. And Padikkal made light of a late call-up with a majestic 65 in Dharamsala, a punchy innings in which his left-handed elegance and correctness stood out. Akash Deep, the only non-batter, picked up three wickets in his first bowl.
The Rohit Sharmas and Jasprit Bumrahs, the Ravindra Jadejas and the R. Ashwins, played their part, as one would expect, but this win was fashioned by the power of youth, and that’s what will have warmed the cockles of the captain, the head coach and the often-unrecognised selection panel.
What India did right - Kuldeep Yadav's 19 scalps
To no one’s surprise, R. Ashwin was the leading wicket-taker with 26 scalps but the generally forgotten Kuldeep Yadav held his own. With 19 wickets, he was joint-third in the wickets column (alongside Bumrah and Jadeja), but there was more to the left-arm wrist-spinner than just that. Seven years after his Test debut, he finally got to play more than two matches in a row, and he delivered in sensational fashion. England’s best batsmen, bar none, were here on tour, but even they couldn’t fathom which way the ball would turn. With an impish gleam in his eye and using the left wrist as a weapon of destruction, Kuldeep produced one masterclass after another. He had had many good days but there wasn’t one good day that was only his until the first day in Dharamsala when, on a true surface, he shot England out for 218. It was the coup de grace, the ideal reward for a series of excellent displays.
Ashwin is 37, Jadeja 35. Kuldeep’s show of potency has eased some of the concerns that accompany transition. Rohit is 36, Kohli 35. The new wave of batters promises to be worthy successors. That, more than 4-1, is the most significant takeaway from the last seven weeks.
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