Oval Obituary To Gabba Glory
The Inspiring Story Of An INDomitable Spirit — Amlesh Ranjan
“Test Cricket is dead…. Long Live Test Cricket.” We keep getting this statement from fans and sports writers, who believe in this era of exciting ‘20/20’ and ‘One Day’ tournaments, the ‘Test matches’, played over 5 long and slow days, have lost their relevance and viability.
On 20th December’2020, at Adelaide Oval, the unthinkable & improbable happened- Indian team was skittled out for their lowest ever test innings score — ’36 runs’. To put this abysmal number into perspective, the highest ever by India team in an innings is ‘759 runs’ recorded exactly 4 years back on 19th Dec’16. There are two Indians, Ravi Shastri, current coach and Yuvraj Singh, the ace all-rounder, who alone have scored 36 runs just in an over i.e. 6 balls only. India badly loses the test and hope.
The rhetoric is back- “Indian Cricket Is Dead…. Long Live Indian Cricket”. And the captain, coach, players, administrators… all come under fire at the hands of the fans, writers, and commentators, past achievements come to a naught. This is the lowest low. A series white-wash is predicted by fans & cricketing pundits. Of course, test cricket is declared dead, again.
On 20th January’2021, at Brisbane Gabba, over a period of one month and 3 more tests, the entire story was re-scripted, and India recorded unarguably one of the greatest test series wins and best-ever 4th innings-last day run chase of all time in the history of the game.
What happened between Oval-20th December’20 and Gabba-20th January’21 is nothing short of heroic & historic. It’s a saga of collective Dedication & Determination; Responsiveness & Resilience- it is truly an Inspiring Story Of INDomitable Spirit, over 4 weeks, giving lessons on Grit & Guts to Glory!
Let us first look at the odds:
o Playing against Australia, in Australia is always a tough proposition.
o Indian team away from home for 5 months to maintain bio-bubble.
o As pre-planned, the Indian Captain needed to return home for a personal responsibility. He was unjustifiably criticized. Vice-Captain leads now.
o One-by-one, the key batsmen, allrounders and bowlers get injured, as they are hit all over the body or have fatigue-induced injury.
o By the last test at Gabba — the top 2 batsmen, top 5 bowlers and the top all-rounder are out injured — 8 from the starting 11 are out.
o Coach, despite his stellar record, is under intense fire from all across.
o Some players are subjected to racial abuse at the hands of spectators.
o Aussie bowlers are exploiting pace & rise, repeatedly on bodyline.
o Aussie player’s collective experience >2 times that of Indian team.
o A lead Indian bowler loses his father, but decides to stay back.
o Sledging is at it’s meanest all through the days and sessions.
o Challenging comments are hotly exchanged on and off the field.
o Bio-bubble breach controversy adds to the hardship of Indian team.
Now, let’s look at what happened after the 1st Test decimation:
o 2nd Test: India makes a come-back, thanks to a resolute combined effort by seasoned & rookies, comprehensively winning within 4 days. Still, bruised and battered, but the confidence is back.
o 3rd Test: Aussies fight back with 300+ scores in both innings and bowling out India in 1st innings securing lead. India has now an insurmountable 400+ to survive- avoid an all out to avert defeat. By day 4 end, 2 openers gone; team shows positive intent by aggressive batting but by day 5 lunch, 5 wickets down; India is staring at defeat, but two batsmen survive vicious bowling to force a win like draw.
o 4th Test: Series still level at 1–1, the stakes at Gabba are too high. Aussies have been undefeated at Gabba for 32 years now. Someone wrote, “Indians, Welcome to Gabbatoir”. The result was a foregone conclusion in favor of Aussies even before the 1st ball was bowled.
Aussies batted first to score 369. India were at 6 wickets for 186 runs, looking like conceding a big 1st innings lead but two late order batsmen made 60+ and reduced the lead to just 33 runs.
The 2nd innings saw Australian batsmen digging deep against high quality bowling from Indians to score 294. India now has an un-achievable task of 332 runs to score on a cracking pitch. Start is bad, as the main opener is out but 2 & 3 dig in to slowly build a base, Shubhman shines, Pujara suffers body blows, but eventually lose their wickets, score reading 3 for 167.
Everyone has concluded that, like the 3rd test, India will bat for a draw, but Indians had other plans. The stand in captain Rahane comes in to show the intent and everyone sits up- India is going for a win. It is still improbable, but the swashbuckling Pant gets promoted, hammers Aussie bowlers around and Sundar adds to the momentum, and India Wins against all odds and predictions!! And yes, Test Cricket also Wins!!
How & why this turn-around happened, and what can we learn:
o Team India has been brought to this high level by series of leaders — Wadekar instilled Faith by defeating England; Kapil built Belief by lifting World Cup; Saurav brought Aggression; Dhoni made them Strategic, and Kohli created ‘in your face Assertiveness’. It’s a tribute to these leaders; the Coaches, Coaching & Support staff; BCCI, the Indian Cricket body and the domestic tournament & talent management, that even after the Captain was away, and the main 8 players were unable to play, the Vice-Captain Rahane and the new & substitute players under the guidance of coach Shastri & team held their own for full 4 weeks to deliver this ‘win for ages’.
o On 20th December night, after ’total-36’ mauling, the Indian think tank was not nursing their wounds, they were sitting together & discussing next test line up. See the Strategy, it was a batting collapse, but they decided to bring in an allrounder- Jadeja. The final XI selection was not based on competency alone, it was on Character and Attitude.
o Pujara, the main bat, kept getting criticized for slowness; continuously getting hit on the body but he stayed put with Determination. Siraj abused from stands, but he faced it with Grit. Ashwin belied his soft exterior, giving back to sledgers with Guts. Jadeja & Shardul brought in all their expertise with Responsibility. Rohit made critical knocks with Experience. Pant, the often written off talent, symbolized the Gumption through his un-orthodox exploits with the bat.
o The newest rookies- Shubhman, Sundar, Natarajan, and Saini showed what wonders Nurturing Talent can do. Dravid, the under-19 coach & Cricket Academy Director, and his team has shown the power of Building the Bench Strength. BCCI has indeed been Far Sighted.
o Rahane, the un-assuming, but Resilient stand-in captain, Led by Example, brought everyone together as a Team; got the Best out of the Available to ride the waves of adversity with complete Calm and Confidence to an unprecedented, and truly Historic Win For Ages.
From Oval to Gabba, the Indian Cricket team has given us lessons in the power of ‘Indomitable Spirit… An Inspiration’ for our world today.
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Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal.
