The Ship of Theseus
I remember that night in the streets of Bangalore. Dhoni had launched the ball from Kulasekara into the Wankhede crowd and crowd surrounding the community tv in my PG had gone bonkers. Strangers hugging each other, sweet being distributed and the Indian flag being waved around proudly. It was madness and joy unbound! Last night though nothing of that sort was in no way short of those emotions. Watching a new generation of Indian cricket chase down a mighty target in style..it is hard to describe the joy.
But as they say if you know, you know!
There are multiple story lines to write and you will probably hear it best from the experts. Let me just gloss over the deets of what is arguably the greatest comeback in a test series.
Batsmen — No Kohli, no par.. hold my beer!
Lets forget the 36 shall we? What’s left?
Kohli the GOAT, with a daddy like performance in the first innings at Adelaide. Rahane’s understated century in Melbourne. Pujara taking the bullets like he is made of Adamantium. Vihari and Ashwin taking a feather out of ABD and Amla’s hat to stonewall in Sydney. Jadeja swinging around his bat like a true Rajput warrior. Pant babysitting Aussie bowlers. Sundar hooking the world’s best bowler for a six. And finally Shubman Gill teaching Marnus a thing or two about calmness.
Bowling — Call an ambulance but not for me!
How many bowlers did we try? 10? 20? 100?
Bumrah with those bouncers. Umesh Yadav and Shami having some fun while they lasted. Siraj miya showing his battle hardened readiness from RCB(and Ranji). Youtuber Ashwin showing Paine who the real GOAT is. Jadeja bowling 6 balls before the batsmen could stop to breathe. Nattu showing he can ball yorkers and more. Sundar with his arm balls. And finally Thakur swinging the ball without sand paper.
Management — Suffering from success
Ravi Shastri can have his old monk and some more!
Ravi Shastri’s attitude has rubbed off on this team. Back your natural game is the most useless cliché in cricket. However, that is exactly what won us the last match in Brisbane. The mental toughness of this team to rise like phoenix is in part due to Ravi, bowling coach Bharat Arun and batting coach Vikram Rathour.
Rahul Dravid. The best thing to happen to India cricket. That bench strength and the most importantly the readiness of the bench, should be attributed to Jammy. May long live his rule!
If you have followed cricket for long enough you will know how hard it is to beat Australia. Beating Australia against Australia? Lol, that shit was forbidden. But I guess the real thrill of it lies in doing what is forbidden!
This Indian team returns home with broken bones but the one that is broken beyond repair is the Aussie cricketing ego. The next time India go visiting, they will be respected and you never know they might even be feared!!
What fascinating 16 days of cricket! My 2021 has already peaked.
Test cricket, no words.
