You don’t win or lose the games because of 11 you select. You win or lose with what those 11 do on the field
Rahul Dravid
Dravid’s words of wisdom could not have held more merit before than on Dec 19, 2020. A bright Australian summer day at the Adelaide Oval. Third day of play in the first Test Match, with India in a much-desired position of comfort – 62 runs ahead and 9 batters yet to wield the willow. A stage well executed and set for Team India juggernaut to roll.
In hindsight, the apt recipe for the day was a simple blend of – skill, temperament, and perseverance. Instead, what took center stage was an altogether different singular recipe – skeptical mindset.
A celebrated team of accomplished batsmen succumbed to a well-scripted craftsmanship of seam and swing bowling. While India lost with what its eleven did with the bat on the field, Australia won with what its two did with the ball on the field.
We ought to credit the Australian trio of fast bowlers for a job, well scripted and clinically executed. Over ninety minutes of India’s batting stint – Starc, Cummins, and Hazlewood stuck to the very basics with sublime precision. Their playbook was to hit the deck with a probing line and length – and let the seam, swing and batsman’s mind play out the rest.
The similarity in cascading dismissals was bitterly evident. I cannot but analogize with the copy and paste of computing world. Cricket is a unique team-sport where not all players are at-play simultaneously at any given time through the entirety of a match. Along with the coach and support staff, there are at most nine players watching from sidelines, who at some point in time, either have been on the field or going to be in future.
In the strategy book of Cricket, this collective ecosystem is expected to observe, draw actionable insights, and more importantly develop an adaptive strategy and game-plan to execute.
In the context of the match’s innings in subject, I cannot resist bringing some questions to the forefront:
Was the batting succession so rapid that they barely had time to pad-up and take the field with no plan whatsoever?
Was it rigid belief in their on-paper individual strength that they thought the original pecking order of batting would resolve on their own?
There was something certainly amiss in the collective approach. Quoting Imran Khan – “If there is one venue where Pakistan can beat Australia, then Adelaide is that ground” – I believe it can be safely applied to Team India as well, especially in the context of modern day Cricket.
Number 36 is noteworthy and always held with a special regard in Cricket world. In the annals of the sport, it has sided with both exhilarating celebration and deep apprehension, and hence figured in a wide spectrum of Cricket emotions.
It made legends and rewrote history with equal panache as obliterating psyche and virtually ending careers. Sir Garfield Sobers, Ravi Shastri, Herschelle Gibbs, Yuvraj Singh were all catapulted to stardom – while the spirit of each of Malcolm Nash, Tilak Raj, Daan Van Bunge, and Stuart Broad was sent packing for the same 36.
On a different front, it was associated with arguably the slowest ODI individual score (36 not out of 174 balls) in the first match of the inaugural edition of Cricket World Cup over 45 years ago.
Now, the brand new 36 is one of different flavor – scripting a new nadir in Team India’s record books. Any ardent fan wholeheartedly would not want it broken ever.
With six days to go for the next Test on Boxing day at magnificent MCG, there could not be more onus on men-in-blue expected to take the field in all whites. One match down and a batting line-up, sans skipper Kohli, has a monumental task ahead to reclaim pride and more importantly its purpose.
Come what may and when may – Test Cricket has not lost – and will never lose – its shine or charm. To me it has the same freshness and value as that of a book in print amid the digital world. I believe the format was christened with “Test” in the name for a specific purpose – it is truly a test of skill, temperament, character, and endurance.