India v Australia 1st Test - Top 5 Hits

Sports can be funny sometimes. No matter how much one strategies or how much one analyses, one small blip out in the centre can change the entire scenario inside out.

Let’s take a cricket match for example. We talk about stratagems. We talk about game plans. We talk about captaincy. And we often fail to realize that a captain or a coach is only as good as his players. If Mike Brearley were to captain Canada against the Australian team of 1981, ten out of ten times they would have been drubbed by an innings inside two days. We also saw what happened with super coach John Buchanan and the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the five players who made a difference in Chennai earlier this week in the 1st Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Ravichandran Ashwin

He was the main weapon before the England series began. Having spun India home at home against the West Indies in his debut series and then New Zealand a season later, England was seen only as a formality, a side to be brushed aside comfortably.

What happened next was purely anti-climatic. After a sound drubbing in the first Test, England woke up to the two spinner policy and over the next three Tests, Swann and Panesar had the Indian batsmen on their knees in their own backyard. In contrast, Ashwin was left fumbling with his bag of tricks as the more classical Ojha reaped the rewards of sticking to a good line and length.

India vs Australia was always expected to be the return of the prodigal Harbhajan and despite his batting skills, not many would have been surprised if the Turbanator and Ojha had made it to the starting line-up ahead of Ashwin. He evidently bounced back with a spell of classical off spin bowling that would warm the cockles of the heart of any Test match purist. Ashwin extracted turn out of a dry first day pitch and then bounce on a crumbling fourth day one as he sent the Australians back to the drawing board with his second match haul of 12 wickets.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni – Criticize the man all you want for his captaincy but you can never fault him for his commitment. In the late 90s and early 2000s while Gilchrist was square-cutting his way in glory, India were in search of a Test match keeper who could average in the mid 20s. Dhoni’s batting average is nudging 40 and most of the runs he has made has come at number 7, shepherding the tail along with him.

What could have been a potentially tricky lead of 30 turned into a gargantuan 192 which on a fourth day Indian wicket is never too bright a prospect to chase down. Sachin had departed at 196 and one more wicket at that stage could have opened the floodgates for the relatively inexperienced lower middle order and the tail. Instead, Dhoni came in and batted the way he does – scoring a double century in less than three sessions and effectively putting a large question mark inside the heads of Michael Clarke and Nathan Lyon.

Moises Henriques

Not everyone expected Moises Henriques to play in Chennai ahead of Glenn Maxwell or Xavier Doherty. Indeed, if Watson had been fit to bowl, he would not have played.

It’s a good thing he did, for apart from Michael Clarke and David Warner to some extent, Henriques looked like the only player who was comfortable playing spin and playing it aggressively. He was one of the reasons Australia reached 380 in the first place and then, after taking a hammering from Dhoni and Co, came back to prise out Harbhajan before he could do too much damage. He continued his rearguard action in the second innings and combined with Nathan Lyon to save Australia from the shame of an innings defeat. It might be too early to pronounce this statement but Australia might just have found themselves a built-to-last Number 7.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar – New age tailenders like Tino Best and Abul Hasan have hogged the limelight with stellar batting performances. What differentiates Bhuvneshwar Kumar from them is that he is a proper batsman who can hold his own when required.

It is refreshing to see an Indian number 10 put his head down and apply himself to his job i.e. turning the strike over to the well-set senior batsman on the other hand and playing his shots with the number 11 at the crease. More so, after the number 9 (Harbhajan) had departed to a loose shot with the scoreline not too far ahead of that of the opposition.

With the ball, Kumar had little to do in conditions which offered negligible assistance but no one could discount him for not trying in his debut Test. If he continues to show the same assuredness with the bat, Dhoni might just be inclined to give the five bowler strategy the longer run it deserves.

Ravindra Jadeja – Probably the most shocking entry on this list but an important one nevertheless. Sri Sri Ravindra Jadeja may have made it to the hallowed portals of Facebook for his art of leaving, but his golden arm (and fielding) were crucial in a game where the designated second spinner left a lot to be desired.

The thing about Jadeja is that not too many people take him seriously. Which is why he walked away with five wickets in the match (the highest after Ashwin and Pattinson) and not too many people noticed.

In the first innings, he got Clarke on 130 who, along with Peter Siddle, was just about to take the match away from India. In the second innings, he got the determined Siddle and then broke the crucial last wicket partnership by accounting for Lyon. Add to that the runs he saved in the field and he would be on any sensible man’s starting XI for India in Hyderabad.