India Continues to Tick All the Right Boxes

The dominance of Team India at home has reached such heights that it is almost expected for Jasprit Bumrah to take a wicket every spell, or for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to score at least a half-century. However, it is a true showcase of India's consistency and strategic acumen that they continue to find ways to outshine their opponents and maintain their position at the top.

Ravichandran Ashwin is willing to get hit in his quest to find the right degree of bounce that can trouble batters, Shubman Gill has no qualms defending before laying into the spinners to bring up a hundred, and Mohammad Siraj is willing to bend his back on a pitch with no help for seamers just because his captain has asked that of him.

Not just the seniors, so clued up is the next set of players that a one-Test old Akash Deep hitting the right lengths straightaway isn’t surprising, nor is Yashasvi Jaiswal exhibiting technique beyond his years.

Which can only bode well for India in a long Test season where India are expected to rotate their personnel keeping in mind the tour of Australia later this year. Biggest positive from their first Test win against Bangladesh however has to be Rishabh Pant’s seamless return to the format. Stung by a soft dismissal in the first innings after getting to an encouraging start, Pant wasn’t ready to throw away another chance to make his comeback count as he equalled MS Dhoni’s record of most centuries by an India wicketkeeper.

“Definitely, it was emotional because coming back I wanted to score in each and every match, which I couldn’t do,” Pant said on TV after India’s 280-run win in Chennai. “But coming back to Test cricket, where I belong most, is great. I enjoyed batting out there and just got a little bit emotional. But at the end of the day, just being on the field gives me more pleasure than doing anything else.”

For Sharma, Pant hitting Test form was never in doubt. “He has been through some really tough times, and the way he has managed himself through those tough times was superb to watch,” said the India captain.

“He came back in the IPL then followed by the World Cup, a very successful World Cup, and then obviously this is the format he loves the most. For us it was never about what he is going to do with the bat. We always knew what he had with the bat and with the gloves as well. It was just about getting him back in the game and giving him that game time. Credit to him as well. He went on to play the Duleep Trophy and got ready for this Test match and had an impact straightaway in the game.”

It’s the bowling combination though that provides a better, wider perspective of how far ahead India are prepared to think. Picking three spinners at home is the norm but with the red-soil pitch at Chennai expected to offer some bounce, India were ready to roll the dice with Deep as the third seamer. In the wider context of the uncertainty over Mohammad Shami’s rate of progress, this was a futuristic move that probably allowed India to check out Deep ahead of the Australia tour while a suitable surface was on offer.

India’s depth of talent was never in doubt but what they have done exceptionally well is for the players to not be restrained by their perceived strengths. Ashwin had alluded to this earlier during this Test when he was speaking about compartmentalising batting and bowling, something that helped him score the hundred. Ravindra Jadeja’s career has gone on a similar curve too, and this Test couldn’t have been a better advertisement of his all-round capability as he partnered Ashwin to thwart Bangladesh with the bat before playing a decisive part in their fourth innings dismissal.

“I think he has been a very inspirational story as far as I am concerned,” Ashwin said at the post-match press conference. “Jadeja made his Test debut just after me. And I saw how he used to bat. Then I was batting ahead of him at one stage. And he has actually walked in at No.5 for us several times. Many of these occasions over the last three or four years, when he has walked in to bat, I felt so good in the dressing room. You feel so calm and composed when he is batting. He has brought that kind of assurance,” he said.

Fielding too, Ashwin believes, has improved after Jaiswal—who also scored a first-innings fifty—started standing close in.

“Slip-catching was a bit challenging 1-2 years ago. But, the way Jaiswal showed improvement in slip-catching in the last 1-2 years, the catches he caught in South Africa, he held a good catch at gully here. KL Rahul is an amazing fielder in the second slip. And now, Jaiswal is standing there. They worked really hard,” Ashwin said.

“The close in catching too. Short-leg fielding is difficult and we weren’t getting good fielders. But Jaiswal used to volunteer and stand up. So, all in all, the hard work they put in off the camera is getting reflected in the match these days. So, it’s a big thing.”