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The Melbourne magic

The second test between India and Australia was all that this series ever promised, and more. A quick background: India arrived in Australia eager to repeat their last test series triumph. However Rohit Sharma was ruled out due to an injury in the later stages of IPL. Our main test spearhead Ishant Sharma was also ruled out due to injury. In the first test, India took a lead of 53 runs in the first innings. A small lead but a very important one as the pitch wasn't very batsman friendly. Evan a 200 in the 2nd innings would have set them on course for a win. However they ended up collapsing for a measly 36, India's lowest score in tests ever, and Australia went on to win the test easily. To rub salt into the wounds, Mohammed Shami was also injured and would play no further part in the series. Virat Kohli was going on paternity leave and would miss the next 3 tests.

No one gave India a chance in this test. The team, however, was silently working away on what needs to be done. 3 changes to the team, with 2 debutants, and our best spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, meant that we had a long tail, but also that we had 5 bowlers. Australia batted first and got out cheaply yet again, for 195. They had yet to cross 200 in the series. It was a fantastic performance by the bowlers which was needed as it helped settle the mental scars of the first test collapse. When India came in to bat, the first milestone seemed to be getting past 36 without much damage. Sport is as much played in the mind as on the field. Ajinkya Rahane played a splendid knock of 112, taking India to 326, a handy lead of 131. But more bad luck was to come India's way as Umesh Yadav went down after 3 overs with a pulled muscle. The selection of Jadeja just increased in impact as we still had 4 bowlers. A tireless effort again from the bowlers got Australia all out for 200 leaving us 70 to chase for a famous win. Fittingly, Rahane hit the winning runs to take us to a famous win.

This is why we believe in miracles.

Stuck in a bio-bubble from August, confined to their hotel rooms for 4 months, going to the toughest country to play cricket in, and losing a winning test by a shock collapse, then losing our best batsman and key bowler, and a stand-in captain to lead us in the 2nd test, India still managed to win the 2nd test. It was a battle against all odds and the grit and character shown by the teams one of a kind. 2020 finally gave us something to cheer for.

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The Miracle at Gabba

It still hasn’t sunk in.

With the series tied 1-1, all India had to do was draw this match to retain this trophy. Australia were in front for almost all the match, and set India a target of 328 on a 5th day pitch. All the experts and pundits were still predicting an Australian win, with a slim chance of a draw if rain intervened. 

No rain arrived. And then the unthinkable happened.

Australia lost at the Gabba, Brisbane after 32 years.

India beat them, without our main batsman, main pace bowler and main spinner. How did this miracle happen.

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Growing up, a test series in Australia used to be a glorious affair. The television would be switched on at 5am, with an early morning cup of hot filter coffee to soothe the nerves. Seeing the carefully manicured grass in different shapes and shades of green used to feel therapeutic. Only until the first ball was bowled. And then it all went downhill. Our bowlers could never handle the Australian batting, even the experienced ones. Our much vaunted batting hardly did better. Even the great Sachin Tendulkar (with Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in tow) couldn’t prevent the 4-0 (1991), 3-0 (1999), 1-1(2004), 2-1(2007)  and 4-0 (2011) results through his career. Not a single win on Australian soil. As a generation, we were scarred of Australian tours with even our greatest unable to get us a series win there.

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India started this series being dismissed for 36 all out. The team sheet read:

Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agrawal, Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

India ended the series with 329/7 for a series win. The cast was:

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Pujara, Rahane, Mayank Agrawal, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Mohd Siraj, T Natarajan.

Only 2 players in common. Find them. Possibly a quiz question for the future.

Almost the entire cast was replaced. The bowling unit was completely re-assembled.

The new cast contained 3 bowlers from RCB, Navdeep Saini, Mohammad Siraj and Washington Sundar, with whom Kohli has been unable to win even a single IPL trophy in a decade. 

Our pace attack had a combined 13 tests in between them. The Australian attack had over 1013. 

The same Australian attack played all 4 tests. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and the greatest bowler currently, Pat Cummins, bowled tirelessly and effectively. They were touted as one of the greatest attacks of all time.

Yet, we won.

Over the course of this series, the Indian team grew up. We all grew up.

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Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were the only 2 Indians to play the full series.

Pujara took more blows on his body than any cricketer I have seen, and didn’t flinch once in facing the next ball. He knew Cummins had the ability to make the ball climb steeply off a good length on a day-5 pitch. He knew if he tried to play at it, there was a chance of edging or gloving the ball. So he chose to take the ball on his body. A 150kmph rock, on his body. Thanks to his efforts over 4 tests, the Australian bowlers had lost all bite by the end of the 5th day of the final test. His presence was key in ensuring the other batsmen got to face tired and ragged bowlers.

Rahane played a magnificent innings at Melbourne to help level the series for India, post the disheartening 36. Such an innings is regularly called a ‘captain’s innings’  but nowhere did this moniker fit better. If Rahane had failed in that innings, in all probability, India would have gone too, following 36 all out by conceding another big lead to Australia, and possibly be 2-0 down. His field placings strategy, with a leg side field, and strangling the Aussie batsmen on the leg side, was both, masterful and a stroke of genius.

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And how about’em youngsters!

Shubman Gill started the final day at Gabba with a bang for India with an explosive 91. His sixes off Start and Cummins must still be reverberating in the stadium. He reminded everyone watching of Sehwag, and who knows, he might even emulate him in the coming decade. Gill averaged a stunning 51.60 in this series, his debut. Thats a staggering entry into the game as it comes on the hard and bouncy pitches of Australia. The future is his for the taking.

Rishabh Pant came in knowing he had to go a step ahead of Sydney. He didn’t take a step back the rest of the day. Pant had been criticised, dropped, made fun off on his weight, and was thought of as having wasted his chances and on the verge of being overtaken in the pecking order by other batsmen-keepers like Sanju Samson. He almost took India to victory in Sydney. In Gabba he made sure he was there to score the winning run following his stunning 97 in Sydney with an even more valuable 89 not out.

Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur were both net bowlers till a few days before this match. They ended up having the batting partnership of the match to save India from certain defeat. India were 186/6 staring at an Australian total of 369. Considering our long tail, Australia would have been thinking of bowing us out for 200 or thereabouts. But the 123 run partnership that they stitched together not just saved India from a huge First innings deficit but also stole the momentum from Aus. Shardul went on to take a whopping 7 wickets in the match. 

Natarajan wasn’t even an international player before 2020. He was picked for the T20 only in Australia and stayed back as a net bowler. All the injuries meant he had to play and boy, was he ready for it. 

Mohammed Siraj lost his father during the course of this series. He chose not to go back for the funeral due to strict quarantine norms. At that time he wasn’t even sure of a place in the playing eleven. He turned out to be the find of the series. He consistently got his SRH teammate David Warner, one of the 2 linchpins of the Aussie lineup out, which in itself was worth its weight in gold. He ended the series with a 5-wicket haul, and pride of place in the massive Gabba win.

In the end, it showed how the new generation was more than ready to step up. They showed no signs of baggage. They didn’t know pressure. They simply exploded with their talent.

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As you walk away from this...

Remember the smile and calm on Ajinkya’s face throughout the series. Remember Ashwin mentioning that the 2nd test was the happiest moment for him in the way we played. Remember the humility Natarajan projected when he admitted he couldn’t even see a ball in facing Starc’s first over. Remember the nonchalant sixes Shubman Gill hit off Cummins and Starc on a 5th day pitch. Remember the cool and calm partnership of Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar. Remember the stunning swing bowling of Mohammad Siraj. Remember the body blows Cheteshwar Pujara took.

This was no less than a miracle.

These people are special. 

This win is special.

[idlitalk]

The Kashmir chronicles

Earlier this week, Amit Shah, the Shah of all things Modi-esque, in his own bombastic way, passed a move to ‘abrogate’ two key constitutional provisions - #Article370 and #Article35A. At this moment, all the MP’s in Parliament looked towards Shashi Tharoor with a question mark on their face. Shashi quickly mouthed the word ‘repeal’ as all nodded their understanding.

“What do these articles mean?”, you ask.

This was the question every Indian across the globe asked immediately, as all stopped worrying about their own lives and money for a New York minute. Amit Shah declared J&K as a union territory and not a state. The number one trending hit on google at that very moment was “How is a state different from a union territory”, a question that google itself had to google to answer. Everyone had studied this in 7th grade civics but no one remembered, which takes me back to the state of education in our lives. But I digress. All it meant was that J&K would be under the control of the centre rather than a balancing act between the state and the centre, which is a good thing in the immediate future, but not the best thing in the long run.

As everyone struggled to grasp the meaning of this announcement, while simultaneously trying to show excitement levels to match that of Arnab Goswami, a guy was overheard saying “ thank God for this, I was so scared of this gay law”. No one bothered to correct him that the law he was worried about was Article 377 whereas this was Article 370. But who can blame them. All these ‘articles’ were too complicated for the common man, but that doesn't stop the common man from shouting his views from the rooftop which is known as ‘social media’ these days. But I again digress. 

So what exactly are Article 370 and Article 35A?, you ask.

Wait, why do I have to think of a primer in the land of wikipedia. So here goes:

Quote from Wikipedia:

Article 370 of the Indian constitution was used to give special status to the region of Jammu and Kashmir. This article, along with Article 35A, defined that the J&K state's residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to resident of other Indian states.As a result of this provision, Indian citizens from other states cannot purchase land or property in Jammu & Kashmir.

Unquote.

In simpler terms, these 2 articles gave the J&K residents special rights as compared to any other India. Think of them as living in their own mini-country. Abrogating them also gave school students 2 chapters to study in 7th grade civics.

So why was this not scrapped earlier?, you ask.

Well, that's the point. This article was included ‘temporarily’ in 1949 and the  intention was for it to last till the formulation and adoption of the State's constitution. However, the State's constituent assembly dissolved itself in 1957 without recommending either abrogation or amendment of the Article 370. Thus the Article has become a permanent feature of the Indian constitution. Generations after generation, politician after politician, turned their head the other way, stuck their head in the sand, or just plain vigorously shook their head when asked about this. After all, who wants to disturb a sleeping lion. But Atal Behari Vajpayee had dreamt of this and did mention it as something that his party would look at if they got the majority needed. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see the dream being realised but the great Sushma Swaraj witnessed it as her last act on earth . Her final nostalgic tweet went “ प्रधान मंत्री जी - आपका हार्दिक अभिनन्दन. मैं अपने जीवन में इस दिन को देखने की प्रतीक्षा कर रही थी. @narendramodi ji - Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime.”

There, now correcting a 70 year old mistake doesn't feel so bad, does it?

However that's not the full picture either. Nothing is ever so black and white, except the song by Michael Jackson. During this period, there have been generations that grew up and this was their life. They have never known any other alternative. Getting all those people to change their lives and be a part of a ‘new’ country is the tough part here. It might take a generation to do it. But it is worth waiting patiently for that generation to reap the rewards. 

“But how does this help India”, you ask.

Well, this now integrates India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari (as the ‘Chennai Express’ song goes) like never before. It gives India a fresh platform on the global stage to have a discussion on POK. It enables all Indians to have the same rights in J&K as they have in the rest of the country. Importantly, it allows Kashmiri women who marry a man from a different state, to get a share in immovable assets. Previously Indians thought of Kashmir as only a ‘tourism’ state but now they can think of relocating and settling there. 

“Now what's next”, you ask.

Thats something no one really knows but every one feels they know. In the world of social media, there are multiple versions of truth. For now, we wait. We watch. And we hope. For a better India.

Disclaimer: this article (no, not 370 and 35A) is a combination of facts and spoof, and hope you identified and chuckled at the spoofs and not the facts.