There is no getting away from the fact that nobody relishes defeat. In fact, sport is also character building and quality sportsman play to their best, and hope to win. Loss is also taken in their stride.
Four tests have been played between India and England. On the conclusion of the fourth test, England lead 2-1 with the fourth having drawn. It was a most remarkable day. When ‘if wishes were horses, beggars would ride”, and indeed they did – the beggars did ride; the chances we would lose were high, the chance to win was none, and the big hope was it could get drawn. That imponderable ‘rain’ did not help out, it never rained. A draw was also a challenge in itself; we did manage a draw and that too with great dignity. With just four wickets down, creating a lead of our own, this was a memorable day for Indian cricket.
Jadeja and Washington playing out a memorable partnership, scoring 100 each, defiant and determined to reach the coveted three figures. Both denied suggestions from the English side, who not seeing any result, that the match could be called off before time. They chugged along, scoring those coveted hundreds, Jadeja for his fifth hundred and Washington for his maiden hundred in tests.
Captain Shubham Gill, just four matches old, has already crossed the 700 runs mark, making himself the biggest run getter captain from Asia, in a single test series. He can chase the world record set by Garfield Sobers, for the maximum number of runs in a single test series, if he can score those 254 more runs, scored in 1996.
These four tests so far have thrown a few questions. Without pretending to be any expert, let us unravel some of these questions. At a most mundane level.
Can a beginner as captain, in his first series, be compared with others who had reached the pinnacle of their careers? Can we, for instance, already compare Gill with Rohit Sharma or Dhoni; first time appointee against established winners? Gill here is playing his first series as captain, is a young 25, has a very young side under him, with a coach who is also experimenting. Not to forget, further, the challenge of playing in England?
Can we begin to question the coach? If and when the game is not going according to your expectation, do we tend to take the easy path by just blaming the coach? Gambhir, too, is young at this, planning his strategy out, while marshalling his resources as best as he can, at a crucial juncture in Indian cricket when the old guard has left, a new one is yet to take ‘charge’.
What about our seamers? Is the Bumrah story already over? Should we go back to the younger elements then? Perhaps, yes, as this is one area we appear weak. Our batting has shown depth, but not the seamers’ section. With the fourth test drawn, which must have given a new lease of confidence to the young team, they must be super charged for the last test. And, indeed, win they must. A drawn fourth test almost appeared as a win, in the last overs, and it is this spirit that will carry on to the last. A spirited and fit pace attack in needed, which might make all the difference.
What about this bifurcation of players, playing in different formats? Has that been a success? Allocating players to play T20 or the ODI or in tests? Are there some players who are fit for all, or perhaps more than one? And is the national team losing out because of this division?
Cricket is India’s most consuming passion, co-existing and sharing the prized position along with politics. Everyone knows everything, everybody has an opinion. Consensus will always elude us. The only way we can avoid debate and differences in opinion is always to win, because then dissension has little meaning.