India were superb, but don’t forget how officials nearly messed it up

Perhaps they should have given the Person of the Match Award to Rohit Sharma. And he could have been asked to share it with Gautam Gambhir. Captains and coaches cop flak when a team does badly, but seldom get enough credit when a team plans a win with such elan.

India shook a dying game alive with an attitude that has been the hallmark of their cricket in recent times. Like modern captains, Rohit is allergic to draws. More importantly, India are keen on booking their spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final before they arrive in Australia later in the year for a five-Test series. They need to win three more Tests, the number they play at home next against New Zealand.

From the time the captain came out and struck his first two deliveries for six, it was clear India were attempting to force a win. Yashasvi Jaiswal was brilliant, and every batter played unselfishly. The Test lasted fewer than 180 overs, or under two days; India needed just 52 overs.

Mere political talk

And yet, they nearly found themselves in a mess thanks to the inefficiency of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA). Green Park Kanpur is a few decades behind India’s best stadiums. Surely there has to be some minimum requirements before a centre is allotted a Test match? To say that Kanpur is a “heritage centre,” has been around as a venue for 80 years and therefore deserves a Test, as Rajiv Shukla, Vice President, Board of Control for Cricket in India, has said is merely political talk. Convenient, no more.

Two days were lost even with minimal rain because the drying facilities were primitive. Had India lost WTC points, would the BCCI — the richest cricket body in the world — have taken the blame for it? Not for the first time, the players saved the governing body’s bacon. Victory dissipates ineptitude. It would be interesting to see how the UPCA spends the huge amounts of money it receives from the BCCI. A new stadium is being built in Varanasi which means the “heritage centre” might have seen its last Test anyway.

It was here that India beat Australia for the first time in a Test in 1959-60. Off spinner Jasu Patel claimed 14 wickets then. A decade later, Gundappa Viswanath made his debut here with a century. If “heritage” is the argument, we’d still be watching Tests at the Bombay Gymkhana, where India played their first-ever home Test 90 years ago!

Positive attitude

But in the end, the official failures are likely to be forgotten, thanks to the players whose positive attitude has brought lustre to Test cricket. There will be a temptation to speak of such nonsense as the “Gamball” style of cricket, after England’s “Bazball” named after their coach. But it must be resisted. No team in history has scored as quickly as India did — at over eight runs an over — to set up the game. Their philosophy was brilliantly summed up by Jasprit Bumrah who said after the match, “Do your best, and then accept whatever happens.” India’s best was good enough.

It is one thing for the skipper to say, “Go for it,” but quite another to have ten colleagues who have both the skill and the temperament to pull it off. That is India’s strength. Jaiswal, at 22, has emerged as a special talent; his first innings 72 ensured that Rohit falling didn’t matter.

The confidence with which India bowled meant that a close finish — one that might have seen the match end, say, minutes before the close — was never on the cards. Had the game stretched for that long, it might have been one of the finest played.

Think as one, play as one

This is an Indian team that thinks as one, and plays as one. Amazingly, it has five men who have led in various formats — a recipe for disaster in the old days when the unstated job of an ex-captain (and a future captain too) was to undermine the current one! No captain has ever been a hero to his vice-captain in the past, and although there is no designated vice-captain in this team, it has made no difference.

India’s cricket has been amazing. Their attitude even more so.