Series win Indian perspective

Prior to the start of the series, if anyone had told Rohit Sharma that his team would lose one Test, he would have been satisfied. If the same person had told him that his team would win 4 Tests and thereby the series, he would have been ecstatic. With the withdrawal of Virat Kohli just before the series and the unavailability of Mohammed Shami, Rohit Sharma must have been cautiously optimistic. He knew that India was playing at home and that England did not possess excellent spinners. Yet, India had come unstuck against the thing that is called as Bazball at Headingley. Added to that, England won a series in Pakistan 3-0 playing the brand of cricket that was hitherto unseen in this part of the world. Series in Indian perspective.

If Shami’s unavailability was a loss, Kohli withdrawing himself was a body blow. It was further complicated by the injuries to Rahul and Jadeja and the need to rest Bumrah for atleast one game. The flipside to this is that a cream of youngsters emerged who may carry the torch for the foreseeable future. More of that later. Now, let me analyse the series from the Indian perspective.

The blossoming of youngsters, Jaiswal

The name that is likely to be among the minds of international teams will be that of Yashavi Jaiswal. He had a stellar series with a couple of hundreds including a double. The fact that he is lefthanded and that too, at the top of the order, is Godsent for the team. For a very longtime, India never had good left-hand batsmen either in the top or the middle order to disrupt the rhythm of the bowlers. As a result, the bowlers more or less need to settle into bowling one pattern. Now, the emergence of Jaiswal at the top has been refreshing. He showed in the series that he could play in all kinds of ways.

If the situation calls for quick runs, he can murder the bowling or if the situation calls for playing time, he could stay in the wicket and wait for bad balls to punish. It shows that he has a temperament that is an essential ingredient at the highest level. With runs in this series, albeit against inexperienced bowlers and a double hundred in the West Indies, Jaiswal seems to possess the necessary skills to excel at this level. By the way, he is also a good sweeper which an overwhelming number of Indian batsmen never play.

Ofcourse, a stern examination of his technique and skill awaits later this year in Australia. Against the likes of Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon, if he could score a couple of hundreds, he would have passed the test. Ofcourse, next year, in England, he will be called upon to bat against the swinging ball. For now, atleast, he can bask in all the glory.

The blossoming of youngsters, Jurel

In the absence of Rishabh Pant, Indian keeping is in safe hands. Dhruv Jurel not only displayed efficiency behind the wickets but showed an ample amount of gumption in front of the wickets. The calm and composed manner of his innings at Ranchi ensured an Indian win after the mid-innings jitter. The first innings 90 was excellent in the same sense which helped the team to narrow the lead down to manageable proportion which at one time, threatened to be in excess of 150. He seems to have learnt the art of pacing an innings with the tail so early in his career. It is a skill that only a few possess. The sad part is that once Pant is back from his life-threatening injury, Jurel may not even find a spot in the playing eleven.

Will the management be interested to retain him as a specialist batsmen?

The blossoming of youngsters, Akash Deep

He was picked from obscurity. Akash Deep was unheard of until he made his debut. Credit must be given to the team management to have given Akash a chance in the absence of Bumrah. Previous management teams have tended to take the safer route and pick the experienced bowler, albeit at the first class level. Here Dravid and Rohit showed some pluck and went in with the better pace of Akash than Mukesh Kumar. He made a solid start with 3 wickets in the innings paving the way for the rest of the bowlers to follow.

The blossoming of youngsters, Sarfaraz Khan

Sarfaraz literally broke the door down to enter the Indian team. He has scored a gigantic volume of runs for Mumbai over the last 2-3 years. Everytime a team is announced, he demanded selection. The absence of Kohli, Rahul and Jadeja meant an opportunity for Sarfaraz finally. He did not disappoint. Infact, a century on debut was his for the taking if not for some stupid Jadeja call. Nevertheless, the pace at which he scored his runs and the effortlessness of his sweeps means that he will have a long career. Just like Jaiswal, Jurel and Akash, his examination will come later this year although, once Kohli and Rahul are back, he is unlikely to find a spot in the playing eleven.

The return of Rohit and Shubman

Shubman has enormous talent. It is clear for everyone. His lack of consistency across formats is highly frustrating. Without talent, no one will be able to score 90 while chasing at The Gabba and thereby being instrumental in winning the series. Moreover, he did not seem to learn from his mistakes. Far too often, he gave his wicket away for middling scores. His talent called for more. A couple of hundreds in this series and a 90 are good but this must be par for course. Having said that, with Gill, you never know. He may again slip back into the scoreless streak that keeps extending without a break. He needs to score more and more heavily for him to be considered as even close to Kohli.

Rohit showed that the light was burning bright during the twilight of his career.

Wrapping up series win Indian perspective

I intend to write part 2 of the series win. In this blog, I have concentrated only on the batsmen. Next, it will be about the bowlers and the coach Rahul Dravid.