India's resilience should force England rethink
Green steps up for Aussies against Kiwis, Bumrah back for 5th Test
Another extended break in the India-England series, another column from me.
At 120/5 with a 24-year-old and 23-year-old at the crease, a bit of panic had certainly crept it at least on my part. Over 70 runs were required and both Ravindra Jadeja as well as Sarfaraz Khan had been dismissed in quick succession.
The manner in which Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel shepherded the chase from there was truly phenomenal, and while this wasn’t quite the backs against the wall and intimidating circumstances of the Gabba a few years ago, it warmed the heart to see another message from young India that they won’t blink when the going gets tough.
Gill took out a page from his predecessors book at No. 3, scoring zero boundaries until the very end and resisting every urge to play a big shot. England laid the bait time and time again, begging him to get on his front foot or come down the wicket but Gill resisted. He finished on 52 off 124, and even that is a bit generous considering the two towering sixes came with victory firmly within sight. There was a steeliness and stubborness to his knock that screamed, “As long as I don’t get out, we will win.”
At the other end was Jurel, fresh off a 90 in the first innings and batting as if he was simply continuing from where he left off. In just his second Test match, Jurel batted with full responsibility but no pressure and kept the scoreboard ticking along to finish with an unbeaten 39 off 77. It was the type of composure you’d expect from the next man due up in Ravichandran Ashwin, a 37-year-old with 99 Tests to his name and famously was so calm he could leave a ball down the legside in the final over of a T20 World Cup chase against Pakistan.
England are now left licking their wounds and, despite what they may say about how daunting India is to play at home and the fight they put up, this was a huge missed opportunity for Baz Ball. Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami, and Rishabh Pant have missed the entire series, KL Rahul for the last three Tests, Ravindra Jadeja was absent for the second Test, and Jasprit Bumrah missed the most recent Test.
Yes, outside of the 434-run walloping in Rajkot, England will feel they had openings in the second and fourth Test, but I wrote in my last column that they showed their capabilities in the first Test and they have fallen well short since. Baz Ball has certainly shown a new way of playing Test cricket and it is captivating beyond any previous measure. Now, though, they have crossed over into the dangerous territory of it being the only way they play instead of one of the ways.
It took some vociferous criticism of Joe Root reverse scooping Bumrah to second slip for him to hunker down and show exactly what he and his side has been missing, and perhaps more importantly, the whole repertoire of what they’re capable of.
Even as Root compiled his tempered unbeaten 122 off 274 in the first innings, the fact that Shoaib Bashir and James Anderson got out for ducks trying to slog at the other end and leaving the centurion stranded cost England what could have been invaluable runs.
Ollie Pope finished with a pair and looks like a man very far removed from his 196, Zak Crawley gets out in crucial moments after getting set, and Ben Duckett seems to give you one dream innings for every 10 innings of disappointment. His 153 in Rajkot is the only time he’s crossed 50 in his previous 13 innings. Ben Stokes has been phenomenal for England in the Baz Ball era and it speaks for itself that he has the slowest strike rate of anyone in the side for the first 50 balls of his innings.
Stokes says that Test cricket is a test of skills and that England have been outskilled. Yes, you expect that from Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav matching up against Shoaib Bashir, Tom Hartley, and Joe Root, but India’s youngest players battling harder for longer periods and showing more desire shouldn’t sit well with them. Michael Vaughan wants to talk about India as underachievers, why is it still such a monumental achievement if the inventors of the sport and the side that plays more Test cricket than anyone accomplishes anything in India? Why isn’t this an expectation yet?
Baz Ball has been a fantastic revelation and England’s style does dictate to an extent how matches against them are played. There are still times for grit, toughness, and resilience, and the absence of it in decisive moments is why for all their bravado they sit second-last in the World Test Championship table with five losses in nine Tests.
A sixth loss in 10 Tests now looks likely because they are going up against a side that not only can Spin Ball better, but mix Jais Ball and a bit of their own Baz Ball with a healthy dose of Wall Ball when needed, too.
SILLY POINT
Australia are 279/9 at the end of the first day of the first Test against New Zealand at Wellington. Cameron Green scored an excellent century and sits unbeaten on 103 off 155 overnight. Batting at No. 4, Green had to help the Aussies navigate out of tricky waters at both 89/4 and 176/6 and this should go down as one of the early innings in his Test career that helps define him.
This wouldn’t be possible, though, without Steve Smith presenting the idea of opening the batting for Australia following David Warner’s retirement and doing so for the first time in his career against the West Indies a month ago. With the emergence of Marnus Labuschagne in the last couple years, the growth of Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh, and now the prospect of Green as a batting all-rounder, Australia are spoilt for riches in the middle order. It’s the opening slot that presented plenty of question marks and no one was ever going to ask Smith to change his position.
Smith has close to 10,000 runs at an average of 57.87 as well as 32 centuries. He has played 111 of his 192 innings at No. 4, scoring nearly 6,000 runs at an average of 61.50 with 19 centuries and 26 half-centuries. He’s played another 29 innings at No. 3 for another 1,744 runs at an average of 67.07. He is arguably the best Test batter of this generation and yet he put his hand up and said he would be willing to open the innings because it may just be in the best interests of the team. Smith knows the only way this would ever happen is if he himself opened the door to the possibility.
This is a superstar of the game exhibiting true team spirit and it should be admired. Green is rightfully the story, but Smith opened the door for him to bat at No. 4 and decisions like this are why Australia win more than any other team in this sport.
SLIP CATCHING
Bumrah will return for India in the fifth and final Test against England beginning March 6 while KL Rahul has been ruled out. Rahul is in fact in London to have his quadriceps injury — first suffered in the 2023 IPL — further evaluated.
RCB’s run at the top of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) came to an end Thursday after being defeated by the Delhi Capitals. DC, RCB, and MI now sit on two wins from three matches each, with Mumbai sitting third on net run rate.
Afghanistan are trying their best to survive against Ireland in a lone Test in Abu Dhabi, still trailing by 26 runs with seven wickets remaining in their second innings.
Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have both lost their BCCI central contracts, missing out on a spot among the 30 players selected. Kishan has reportedly upset the BCCI by declining to play in domestic matches but the decision to drop Iyer seems a bit more curious after his strong run of form for India during the ODI World Cup. His recent absences have been due to injury. There are plenty of new faces in the Grade C category while rising star Yashasvi Jaiswal has lept into the Grade B category already. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja are the only Grade A+ contracted players.
Mohammed Shami will miss the upcoming IPL after undergoing surgery in his right Achilles tendon in London on Monday. It has now been revealed that Shami played through the pain during the 2023 ODI World Cup, taking injections to manage it. He finished as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 24 wickets in seven matches at an average of 10.70.
Rishabh Pant will captain the Delhi Capitals in his return to the IPL, but will play exclusively as a batter in the first half of the tournament. Pant is making a comeback after a traumatic car accident in Dec. 2022. Reminder to check out this interview I posted a while back if you haven’t already:
Excellent.