Updated: December 20, 2020 7:43:27 am
Virat Kohli of India stands with arms crossed near the end of her match against Australia on the third day of her cricket test match at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia on Saturday 19 December 2020. Australia won the match . (Source: AP)
India will continue to wear masks and remain optimistic about the vaccine. Christmas will continue to be next week. And Indian cricketers will be performing at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day in hopes of squaring the series with a substitute captain. What Boris Becker said in 1987, after the second-round loss at Wimbledon as the two-time defending champion, should give a grieving nation perspective. “I have not lost a war, no one died, I only lost a tennis match.”
The eight-wicket loss in Adelaide on Saturday was India’s 168th in test matches and its 30th in Australia. And it is not the first time that India, a country with a modest distance record in the Test, has trailed the opening match on foreign soil. This is not a time for self-loathing but for self-examination.
The true 36-9, the new low of Indian cricket, hurts, but sports have a habit of reminding everyone that even the best can have the worst of days. Nothing worked for India on Saturday. There were no strokes of luck or even the brush of the green.
The first hour of the day in test games is as much about balls hitting bat by millimeters and edges that fall just below fielders as it is about falling grounds. However, it turned out to be a miraculous day in Adelaide: the ball moved a little more to kiss the edge and traveled much longer to reach the fielders.
On Saturday, it was all aimed at the ‘keeper: “caught Tim Paine” was on every online scorers clipboard. Having slept with the smell of a rare test win in Australia, India woke up to see Baggy Green huddle tousling the hair of their fast players Josh Hazlewood (5/8) and Pat Cummins (4/21) in loop.
If, for once, social media can be ignored and the views of today’s effigy burners, meme-makers, and WhatsApp super-spreaders are overlooked, this was a rare hitting collapse in the world. that the hitters did not throw their windows or can be blamed for it. poor shot selection.
Most of the first-order hitters tried to get in the ball line and gave the pitcher the respect he deserved. Captain Virat Kohli came out throwing his bat at a wide ball, but he couldn’t be faulted either, he was simply showing a deserved disrespect to a bad range ball.
The only hitter suspected of skill and temperament in the Test Match was starter Prithvi Shaw, but singling out a 21-year-old for this monumental loss would be unfair. It may be the case to replace him for the second test (he was thrown twice in the eight balls he faced in this test), but it cannot be the reason for this humiliating defeat. However, more than his game, it is the hype around him that made him a target of scorn and sarcasm.
In the past, coach Ravi Shastri, while talking to him, had said: “There is a little bit of Sachin there, a little bit of Viru in him and when he walks, there is also a little bit of Lara.” In Adelaide, when Shaw shuffled with the rest of his deflated teammates, he was anything but the hitting champion Shastri made him out to be. He looked like a heartbroken young man who couldn’t pass the incredibly high bar his coach had set for him.
More than a batting masterclass, this Indian team needs a reality check. Coach Shastri and Captain Kohli can also do it with some sense of proportion, a history lesson, and hopefully some humility.
Before the game, Kohli was excited about his Class of 2020. “The new India accepts challenges and is full of optimism and positivity. We make sure we are prepared for any challenge that comes our way, ”he had said. He had also spoken earlier that the “new India” is about collective strength and not individual achievement. For a country that has historically had a career-building record and not too big overseas, this was a low blow for “old India.”
Shastri, the booming voice of Indian cricket, was more unmistakable. He would call this the “best Indian team in 15-20 years”. The fact that the golden generation of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Kumble preceded the Kohli era was not a consideration for a coach who believed in not neglecting any hyperbole when talking about his underperforming team.
With no ICC World titles and test series losses in South Africa and England, Kohli’s team has potential but is still working. A series won in Australia, India’s first, is the most important result for this team, but the architect of that historic victory was not the product of these times.
Pujara, the Man of the Series during the last Australian tour, does not have an IPL contract, he is an old school test hitter and not the true strike rate conscious ambassador of this “new India”.
Kohli and the new generation of fans who no longer watch cricket, but broadcast it, need a crash course in “old India.” They accepted challenges and were filled with optimism and positivity. They were also pioneers. Tiger Pataudi gave India the conviction to win with spin, Sunil Gavaskar showed how to take on the West Indies pacemakers without a helmet and as for Sachin Tendulkar, he took on the world singlehandedly in a locker room infiltrated by match-fixers .
If the captain and coach believe that this was India never seen before, then on Saturday in Adelaide someone would have sewed up some resistance. If they’re the best of all time, someone should have conjured up an inspired feat. He needed more than mere skills, more than just an expression of misplaced ambition or pride.
For a team so desperate to make history and yet so dismissive of her, 36/9 is an epic descent into arrogance.
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