England Vs India First Test: Joe Root Engineers Collapse Of India’s House Of Star Cards!
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Photo: espncricinfo.com |
England
captain Joe Root did the right things from the very beginning of the first
cricket test against India in Chennai: winning the crucial toss and naturally
electing to bat on a track that is known to turn from the third or the fourth
day; scoring a double ton that helped his team build a mammoth first innings
total of 578, neutralizing the three Indian spinners on their home turf; having
his spinners and pacers, particularly James Anderson rally around restricting
India to 337 which is largely thanks to a few of India’s Australia-resistance
heroes, keeper Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin; being
always wary of India’s elusive but documentary batting depth and not risking to
bat last on a turning track, and therefore, not enforcing the follow-on; despite
having his team out for a paltry 178 in the second innings still allowing his
team enjoy a rather amusing target of 420 for India to achieve in just over a
day; and having Anderson strike three crucial blows in the morning session of
the last day, paving the way for a oft-repeated Indian collapse. So then, he played the ‘Root cause’ for England’s
crushing win by 227 runs over India, leading the World Test Championship Series
1-0.
And
India, oh dear! Over the decades we’ve been witnessing classic Indian collapses
on the last day facing a daunting task of either winning outright or drawing,
except for a few monumental occasions including that in Australia in the
recently concluded Test Series. In the same Australia Series we had seen the
36-all-out syndrome by Virat Kohli’s India, and then stand-in captain Ajinkya
Rahane engineering a historic resistance to win the Series 2-1. In this
particular cricket new normal first test in Chennai, India, with all its star
players back, was expected to bat on for the next two days and thus achieving a
likely draw.
However,
that did not happen. All of the Indian top batting order except for Cheteshwar
Pujara failed to launch a fitting reply as the English spinner duo set about
beating the masters in their own game. The duo of Bess and Leach accounted for
6 vital wickets in India’s first innings while the three Indian spinners fought
hard to capture 5 in England’s first innings. A huge run deficit of 241 proved
to be the turning point for the home team, and despite its spinners finally coming
into the frame and skittling out the visitors for 178, we were treated again to
the time-tested spectacle of the Indian team marching towards an inevitable end
with defeat written large at every spot on the field.
Although
it is only the first of the four test matches, the result yields some scope for
introspection. The contrast is extremely marked: even a less than a second-team
India rallied around in Australia against the mighty home opponents while the
strong reinforced full-strength team faltered on their favorite spinning home
turf. Losing the toss cannot be termed as the only causative factor, apart of
course, from the Root Cause. It’s only natural to get your star players back in
the team that, in this case, included the captain himself. But the star players
must perform and cannot take their places for granted. For example, opener
Rohit Sharma failed in both of the innings as if continuing from his Australia
tour; the captain also failed in the crucial first innings and his campaign for
a losing cause in the second innings is hardly any justification. The three
Indian spinners failed to apply any pressure on England in the first innings,
and this would perhaps bring into picture the exclusion of Kuldeep Yadav or
going for an extra fast bowler with the hero of Australia, Mohammad Siraj decorating
the dressing room. Ajinkya Rahane too fared miserably in both innings, and this
brings to us another angle.
Is
everything alright between Kohli and Rahane? It’s often seen that Rahane
performs poorly in Virat’s team and proves himself otherwise, as if free of any
tether. Rahane’s captaincy, as displayed in Australia and elsewhere in limited
openings, is strategically interactive, thinking and calculatively aggressive to
Kohli’s strategy of aggression based on instinct and impulses. While we cannot
deny Kohli as the best Indian captain on record in all three formats of the
game we still suggested a split-captaincy regime after the Australia Test
Series, making Rahane the captain in the test team. There’s nothing wrong in
this, because many countries have three captains for the three formats, not
causing any humiliation or insults to anyone in the process.
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