The World Test Championship final is finally here, after all the discussions and predictions that have done the rounds in cricketing circles. There were questions galore. Were the Indians ready? Would they suffer an IPL hangover? Were the Aussies better prepared? Who was India’s best option with the big gloves, KS Bharat or the dashing Ishan Kishan?
India won an important toss, or so it seemed. Conditions were gloomy, with grass on the pitch. So when Rohit Sharma looked up to the sky and down at the strip, his choice was a simple one – bowl. And Pat Cummins, the Aussie skipper, when asked by Nasser Hussain, the toss presenter, admitted that he too would have opted to field. The Indian team surprised many, including me, with Ravi Ashwin absent. At The Oval, with all those years of spinning history, it must have been hard for Rohit and Rahul Dravid to keep out a man with 474 Test wickets and five hundreds to his name.
You just hope that India did not pick a team with Day 1 alone in mind, for one this grass withers over time, the spinners will have a big role to play. But then, life seems so much easier in hindsight. Winning the toss is one thing, but you need to bowl in the right areas, with not too many loose balls, to make the skipper’s decision look right. The opposite can also happen. The Indian new-ball bowlers, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, were simply brilliant first up. They beat the bat innumerable times, and Australia were lucky to lose only the in-form Usman Khawaja.
They could well have been three or four down in that first spell. The Aussie batters dug deep and the class, perseverance and fierce determination of David Warner just shone through. I just spent the last nine weeks with him at The Delhi Capitals, and after having scored 516 runs in a difficult season for his franchise, he completely changed his game. Although he got out in rather unlucky fashion, stifled down the leg side to a shortish ball, it was clear that he has a big summer ahead of him, with the Ashes to be played after this one-off match.
India came back strongly with wickets either side of lunch, and Shardul Thakur was really good in this spell, doing the holding seamer’s job and being rewarded with a wicket. Umesh Yadav, on the other hand, looked short of match fitness, and the fact that he did not bowl a lot in the IPL was there for everyone to see. His job became one of keeping the runs down, but that was supposed to be Shardul’s role and not the third seamer’s.
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It’s easier for bowlers to make the switch from T20 to a Test match, as has been the case here, because you still bowl a lot of hard lengths in T20 cricket. However, for the batters, this adaptation is not as simple. All of a sudden, there is a lot more juice in the pitch, the best bowlers are at you all day, and not just for the four overs. What’s more, they are trying to get you out with fielders in catching positions. A boundary or two will not move these fielders, and you had better have the technique, temperament and overall skill to be able to bat 150 balls.
For someone like Travis Head, 150 balls is a lot. The way he plays, 150 balls could end up yielding 180 runs, if not more. He is like a Virender Sehwag in the middle order. He does not always have the luxury of attacking fields, as Sehwag did being an opener, but Head at No. 5 still keeps his strike-rate up with in-out fields. That is a lot easier said than done, and you need very special ability to be able to have this skill set in your kitbag.
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It took the accuracy and guile of Ravi Jadeja, and an in-out field, to keep that strike-rate of his under some control, albeit briefly. And Steve Smith was, well, Steve Smith – unorthodox, solid, precise and disciplined. That’s not a bad bunch of qualities for a batter to have. In fact, this partnership of Smith and Head – chalk and cheese in their approach – was the perfect one for the Aussies, with doggedness and fluidity at either end.
And that partnership could well have batted India out of this game. You never say never in a five-day Test, and that will be India’s hope. Travis has turned this game on its head, pun intended, and Smith has been a more-than-capable partner-in-crime. All three sessions to Australia, and India have their work cut out to claw back in this one-off, winner-takes-all contest.