Agnijit Sen from Melbourne
Of late, a lot of cricketers have made it to the Indian team from Bengal. Mohammed Shami leads the pack, but there are Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and Abhimanyu Easwaran (he is in the squad).
As for Akash, a boy from Sasaram, he was initially dissuaded by his father to play cricket. Much like popular Hindi film narrative, this boy packed his bags, came to Durgapur, was backed by his uncle and got enrolled in a cricket academy. There was no looking back from here on. A tally of 126 wickets at an average of 23.61 from 37 first-class matches is quite something.
Circa 2024, however, marked the best year for the fast bowler. He was India A’s top wicket-taker against England Lions earlier this year. Very soon, he made his Test debut against England in Ranchi.
It was an excellent debut. He took out Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope, basically England’s top order, in a fiery opening spell.
Akash has remained in the reckoning since. He featured in the New Zealand home series and was predictably chosen for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
Three frontline seamers played for India in the first test in Perth on a seam-friendly pitch. Harshit Rana was picked ahead of Akash and was impressive on his debut. India scripted a memorable win in Perth and went into the second Test (day-night) ain Adelaide. Akash, despite having a fair amount of experience with the pink ball, had to sit out again. This time the obvious logic being not tinkering with the winning bowling combination. India slumped to a 10-wicket defeat in the second Test, with Rana being taken apart by Travis Head during his memorable knock.
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Much predictably, the Bengal quick replaced Rana for the third Test in Brisbane. He bowled an excellent first spell during Australia’s first innings, with the ball going past the outside edge multiple times. The wickets column, though, did not reflect anything. Even Steve Smith acknowledged that spell at a press conference. Akash bowled his heart out for more than 29 overs. What did the wickets column reflect after all this hard work? Only Alex Carey’s wicket. With Australia going hammer and tongs in the second innings, trying to force a result, Akash chipped out Nathan Mcsweeney and Mitchell Marsh, but there was something about those wickets. None of those wickets fell due to wild slogging. Akash had both of them caught behind, bowling a probing line and length. And this is exactly what his strength is. A proper work horse in Test cricket, he can bowl long spells, a rare quality in the so-called crop of T20 bowlers nowadays.
In the ongoing fourth Test at the MCG, Akash was at his best from Day 1. With Australia deciding to bat, he ended up bowling 26 overs in the scorching Melbourne heat. He didn’t have much luck. With multiple reviews and umpire’s call going in favour of the batters, Akash had to keep patience. He did not disappoint. Hitting typical Test match line and lengths, he troubled the batsmen more often than not and got the wicket of Steve Smith. Probably, not the way he would have wanted to, but he would take that any day. Finally the cricketing gods were being kind to him it seemed. And they were kinder to him during Australia’s second innings. Captain Rohit Sharma gave him the new ball ahead of Mohammed Siraj.
Jasprit Bumrah breathed fire from one end and Akash, held one end up. With runs hard to come by, soon came the wicket of Sam Konstas. Bumrah celebrated in an uncharacteristic manner but if you had watched the game closely, you would have been happy for Akash as well. Fast bowlers hunt in pairs and finally, Bumrah found support at the other end.
But guess what? Australia are nine down and Akash is still wicketless. He shouldn’t have been though. Yashasvi Jaiswal spilled an absolute sitter of Marnus Labuschagne in gully to deny Akash a wicket. And what did the bowler do? Hands on his head, some murmurs to himself and straight back to his bowling mark. That’s who he is. Relentless and wicketless at the same time.
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