India's England Woes 2018: Hoping against hope
There cannot be a more meaningful telephonic conversation or a series of text message (SMS) exchanges than discussing cricket with your dearest friend, who is not only like-minded but also a prolific writer himself. This commentary was born out of one such exchange with one of my literary friends when India was at Lord’s.
My friend felt that he had never seen a more collectively useless Indian batting line-up and the fact that Kohli benefited from the luck he was offered. His feedback set me thinking. Were they at Lord’s? - I asked myself. Maybe they were, and they were at sea, teetering on the brink of a near annihilation by the English bowlers.
A decent English pace battery operating in weather conditions conducive to swing bowling coupled with no real batting acumen made it a lethal combination where every other front-foot or back-foot shimmy was only a self-defeating proposition for these Indian 'struggle-men'! That was a clear SMS to my friend, from my end!
True, their lack of inclination showed up. But it was agonizingly frustrating to note that they ‘fell like a pack of cards’ airlifted from the nothingness of subcontinent wickets to the few lively ones in England - a nothingness that has drawn crowds all these years, producing high-scoring-thrillers or dead rubber contests. Former England Skipper Nasser Hussain remarked that the whole contest looked like ‘men vs boys’, and rightly so.
Under the circumstances, with the performance of the batsmen in the first test match already hurting the fans back home, it was imperative that the Indian think-tank advised the members of the team to refrain from making any undue claims or aggravate the situation. Unfortunately, the likes of Rahane and Kohli, in fact, spoke to the media giving the impression that they had done nothing wrong and that it was just 'some of those days' when things did not go right for the team when the second test was on.
In Rahane, we are talking about a batsman who was dubbed Dravid’s protégé, whereas Kohli, a prolific run-scoring machine - courtesy of the retired Mcgraths and the Shane Bonds and the Warnes, who tops all the ranking tables in the world! Thus, some of their interviews became merely a hothouse testing ground for exuding confidence with an urge to look ahead, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
For the Indian batsmen, there was a way out. The recently concluded T20s hangover could be the go-to-excuse which some of our batsmen would next resort to and save their face. On the other hand, earlier this year, Pakistan cricket team toured England in May and gave England a run for their money. But with this Indian team, a team that has managed to collect 162, 107 and 130 in their last three innings respectively, where was the will? There was only the will to wilt under pressure, in testing conditions.
As for England's bowling, it was all about keeping things simple. From Jimmy to the sum of Chris squares (Chris Woakes & Chris Broad) it was their out-swinger that did all the damage, with the occasional in-swinger or the one that held its line troubling the Indian batsmen.
Add to India's poor show England's the-many-missed-catches, and one would say even if we had played twenty-five batsmen we would have still lost the game! Some three or four English slip fielders were just waiting for a few dolly catches and the Indian batsmen fed them with healthy outside edges flying off their bat, by training and inclination!
A top order clueless as to what to do with the swinging ball, a middle order too brittle to handle pressure from both ends, England's well-disciplined bowling and its match-winning partnership with the weather being what it was, summed up the story of the Lord’s test.
England was miles ahead, with India nowhere near their opponents on the field. It was rather a ‘mis-match, not a Test Match’! In the second Test, the manner in which Ishant Sharma, the last Indian wicket to fall, got dismissed guiding one to the leg slip, the only fielder positioned on the leg side, said it all.
Such was the dismal performance of the Indian batsmen that the efforts made by their counterparts were thoroughly overshadowed. In stark contrast to the way the Indian batsmen failed to score runs, the English batsmen applied themselves, weathered spells of good bowling partnerships and proved solid at the crease. At Trent Bridge, when they take on England for a third time in this Test Match series on Saturday, hoping against hope, India will need to turn the tables, at least show some intent if not perform better.