Test cricket is usually a game for wise, old heads and experienced hands. In tricky conditions, as the two teams encountered in Ranchi, your temperament is tested every bit as much as skill. And that’s where there’s often no substitute for experience.
England’s top six had two men – Joe Root and Ben Stokes – with over 100 caps. Jonny Bairstow will get to that milestone next week in Dharamsala. Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope have played more than 40 matches. Even Ben Duckett, the only one with less than 20 games on his resume, had played Tests in India as long ago as 2016.
In contrast, no one in India’s top seven had even 75 caps. As Rohit Sharma was setting the platform for the tricky pursuit of 192, he would have been well aware that he wouldn’t be able to look across the 22 yards and see the reassuring presences of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara or Ajinkya Rahane. Even the injured KL Rahul has been playing Tests nearly as long as Rohit.
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Instead, India’s captain was shepherding a line-up that had two who had made their debuts in this series, Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar, and another, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who isn’t even a year old in Tests. Dhruv Jurel, the wicketkeeper and No. 7, was playing his second Test. Of that quartet, Patidar has looked completely out of sorts. Sarfaraz, after a stunning debut in Rajkot, found life much harder in Ranchi.
Under pressure, inexperienced sides, in any sort, can often crumple like a beverage can under a heavy foot. Often, however, these are the situations in which you find your team for the future. For nearly 15 months now, ever since Rishabh Pant’s unfortunate accident, the talk has been of stopgap keepers. But so impressive has Jurel been, especially while rescuing India in the first innings, that it’s not a stretch to imagine both him and Pant in the line-up in future.
Conceding a first-innings lead in India is often the kiss of death. But the class of Jurel and the responsibility that Kuldeep Yadav showed with the bat transformed this match, as did the fearlessness with which Akash Deep came out and batted on his Test debut. In the second dig, Shubman Gill played perhaps his finest Test knock since the 91 in Brisbane three years ago.
Less than a day before India sealed his series, Liverpool won the Carabao Cup against Chelsea with a squad that had been decimated by injury. In extra time, nearly half those on the pitch were academy kids with next to no experience. But instead of wilting, they thrived, bossed the game and won the trophy.
Matches like those are the making of teams. India won at Rajkot by a record margin. But in every sense, this is a far greater victory. Pushed to a corner, they refused to throw in the towel. Guided by experienced players like Rohit, Ashwin and Jadeja, the new faces stepped up and did what they needed to. Every Test win is special. This will always be remembered as being more special than most.
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