Where are Indian cricket's "Acche Din"?
It is the middle of May in Mumbai, and a boy aged 12 years, who is practicing cricket at Shivaji Park, hears the slogan “Acche Din Aane Waale hain” (Good days are about to come). Being a diehard cricket enthusiast, he assumes that this slogan is in relation to Indian cricket. He smiles and thinks that Team India, who are due to tour England later this summer, are going to come out as winners.
The tour starts, and the first Test match at Nottingham ends in a draw. The boy is still enthusiastic about the match, as the Indian tail-enders played really well. His enthusiasm is justified given the whitewash that the Indians received on there previous tour on the English soil in 2011. The next match is at Lord’s, and an Ishant Sharma-inspired India defeats England at the ‘Home of Cricket’. The fact that the last Test match victory at Lord’s happened 28 years ago tells a story in itself. The young boy jumps in euphoria and walks up to his parents and says “Acche Din aa gaye”(Good days have come). Little did the young boy know that these good days would be short-lived.
Back to square one
India gets crushed in the next two Tests, and the series scoreline changes from 1-0 in India’s favor to 1-2 against India. The boy is dejected and left wondering what happened to the “Acche Din” (Good days). Well, not just the young boy, the mood of the entire cricket crazy nation of ours has been a bit somber owing to the cricket team’s performance. While most of us realize that winning and losing are part and parcel of the game, but the manner in which Team India lost the last two Test matches has been rather disappointing.
To give a bit of perspective, we lost the last match at Old Trafford in less than three days even after half of day two was lost due to rains. Add to it, Indians who are known to be better players of spin bowling were found wanting against the off-spin of a certain Moeen Ali: a player who until now we knew more because of the wrist band he wore than his bowling. When the Indian batsmen struggled against the duo of Stuart Broad and James Anderson in the first innings of the fourth Test match, the fans seemed to take it in their stride. It is expected that the Indians will struggle against quality pace and swing bowling outside the subcontinent. But, when the struggle happens to be against the spinners, it really hurts, for the Indian batsmen have grown up all the years playing spin bowling day in, day out.
In the post-match analysis, it was mentioned that, if the matches were broken down session-wise, then, since the now famous Lord’s victory, India had won just one out of the twenty sessions. This just goes to show the extent to which the Indians have been dominated by the English players in the last two Tests. Probably, the only sight that would have given the Indian captain MS Dhoni some pleasure would be the performance of his pacers. We are, and have always been, a nation deprived of quality pacers, and nothing gives us more delight than the sight of our own fast bowlers playing chin music to the opposition batsmen. So, when Varun Aaron knocked off Stuart Broad’s nose, Indian fans’ sympathy had a sense of pride associated with it.
All is not lost
Dhoni, now, has plenty of issues to sort out before the final Test: the opening combination has not clicked so far, slip fielding has been found wanting, middle order has struggled, and the list goes on. With all these issues, going into the final Test match at The Oval, the odds are heavily stacked up against the visitors. Although most have already written off the Indians, I would say that there is still some hope for India.
Virat Kohli is due for runs, and I believe that he is too good a player to be out of form for long. Murali Vijay has played some good knocks and Cheteshwar Pujara has also looked good in the short time that he has spent in the middle. If these two can score runs and the pacers can back them up, then we could be in for a pleasant surprise. Cricket is a game of glorious uncertanities, and the young boy at Shivaji Park might still be able to sing “Acche din aa gaye” after the fifth Test.