If you fight back and get hit, it hurts for a little while. If you don’t fight back, it hurts forever.
The Indians did not want the memory of this match to hurt forever. India were far behind in the game when day three began and were still behind as it ended, but the fightback was there for everyone to see and savour. One team will win and one has to lose, that’s a given. But a contest was what everyone wanted, and there certainly was one.
KS Bharat was made to realise that Test cricket is a brutal game the second ball he faced, completely flummoxed by one from Boland, clearly the best Aussie bowler on the park. He was done in by a ball that pitched and jagged back sharply to castle him. Then came a testing spell, and Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur were made to fight for each ball, forget each run.
Thakur was hit on the right forearm not once, but twice in quick succession. Usually, there is no protection there, but such was the brutality of the spell and the bounce that an arm guard was put on his right forearm – something I was seeing for the first time. Australia were really benevolent, wickets off no-balls not once, but twice – Pat Cummins, the skipper, the culprit on both occasions.
There were dropped catches too, very unlike the Aussies, whose out-cricket is second to none. Rahane and Thakur built the innings brick by brick, and Rahane really came into his own after his 50. Spare a thought for Rahane. Here only because KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are injured, and preferred only because of the magnitude of the occasion. With Suryakumar Yadav in the team, and young guns like Sarfaraz Khan – a really good player in his own right –breathing down his neck, this could have been his last chance of keeping his place.
India go to West Indies after this, and had he failed in this game, we could well have seen some younger players being tried. My mind jogged back to the Duleep Trophy final in Coimbatore, where West Zone and South Zone locked horns. Leading West Zone, he was first out for the morning warm-up every single day for five days. No big-player tantrum, no India shirts, shorts or T-shirts in sight, no leaving the ground while fielding and putting his feet up.
He scored 8 and 15 in that game, yet his commitment was second to none. In fact, when Yashasvi Jaiswal, who put West Zone in the driver’s seat – in spite of conceding the first-innings lead – with a brilliant 265 off 323 balls, faltered and got into a heated conversation with the batter despite being warned earlier for the same offence, Rahane asked him to leave the field of play. I have been involved with cricket for a very long time, and I had never seen a player being asked to leave the playing arena by his own captain. That’s Ajinkya Rahane.
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He may not have the talent of Rohit Sharma, the exuberance of Virat Kohli, or the elegance of a young Shubman Gill, but what he does have is the fire in his belly and nerves of steel along with a very good technique. Add in the ‘khadoos’ attitude of the Mumbai batter, and he can grind you to pulp. Soft-spoken and immaculately behaved, you always wish well of such people.
On the other hand, Lord Thakur loves The Oval. Going by his form at this ground, it is only a matter of time before we see him in Surrey colours, which would do him a world of good to become the all-rounder that the Indian team so badly needs, specially with Hardik Pandya giving clear signals that his red-ball cricket is a thing of the past. Many of the Indian greats have benefitted from a county stint, and Shardul would too if the opportunity arose. It’s a great place for you to get your post-graduate degree, the ideal finishing school for any young cricketer.Some of the shots he played were breathtaking and once Rahane was dismissed, he really came into his own. Ultimately, he perished trying to up the ante, but he had done his bit and showed all of us that he has what it takes. India need a genuine all-rounder, and he is the closest to the finished product that we have at our disposal. Bowls a heavy ball, has the knack of picking up wickets and, more importantly, this special ability to get set batters out. He is more than handy with the bat, but his biggest attribute is immense self-belief and fire in the belly, often the two most important things apart from all the skills that you have in your armoury.
A lead of 173 is a handy one to have. So even before the opening batters have taken guard, the scoreboard reads 173-0. Nice! Or so the Aussies thought. The Indian bowlers were quick to hit the straps. They were aggressive, fiery and on the money. They were given a lesson by Scott Boland, and they learned quickly. It was heartening to see the Aussie batters hopping around. The world is certainly round.It was 16-1 was after 9 overs, which meant that the Indian seamers had found their mojo. David Warner played a nothing shot, but the Indians did not mind at all. Usman Khawaja was picked up by Umesh Yadav, who had an indifferent first innings. It was so good to see Rohit Sharma, his skipper, by him at mid-off lending an ear to this lion-hearted fast bowler and also giving him the right advice.
Opening the batting in England has never been easy. The Dukes ball is tough to negotiate first up, and many big names have succumbed. So one has to feel for the openers, no matter who they are and which team they are playing for. This is especially true if the deck has some juice in it, and this one certainly has considering the amount of balls that have hit the batters on the gloves and body.
Steven Smith showed why he is cut from a different cloth than most. In the first innings, he was sedate and watched Travis Head make merry from 22 yards away. This time, he came out all guns firing and did not want the bowlers to get on top. He did not have Head, a free-stroking player with him at the other end, so he took it upon himself to take the bull by its horns.
Now, Labuschagne had the best seat in the house. Also, the way Smith batted sent the right notes out to Labuschagne and those in the dressing room that things were getting easier. That is what solidity can do to others around you. I wonder how many gears Smith has in his repertoire. And I will keep wondering about this genius freak of nature because a lot of what he does while batting is nowhere in the coaching manual. But then, the coaching manual is only relevant when a player does not succeed, and he has had no such problems whatsoever.
Not many know how hard he works on his game. He has been known to shadow-practise at 2am and no one wants to room next to him or beneath him because he keeps knocking that bat on the ground all day and night. He scored 34 off 47, but it was the way he made the runs that flattened the potent Indian attack and lifted his team. A classic case of a brief knock doing the job. Impact. Last, but not least, he will be miserable because of his mode of dismissal. It was not surprising that after getting out, he was still in his batting gear sitting alone, with his teammates giving him some time to let off some steam.
India fought back really well, taking wickets at regular intervals. Although they are up against it, they are not completely out of it. The fightback in the morning and late afternoon kept them in the game. All in all, an intriguing couple of days of cricket await us.
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