On Friday morning, a little before 9.30 am, Kapil Dev stepped up to the pedestal where the new silver-hued bell has been installed in the pavilion of the Eden Gardens. For the first time ever, then, it rang out, loud and clear, indicating that play was about to get underway shortly. Only, it was just in the nick of time as singing national anthems had eaten into the legendary allrounder’s "ringing time".
As India’s 250th Test match on home soil progressed, another bell rang out. This time not of celebration, but of alarm – 57/3 at lunch, and 239/7 at stumps on day one. These scores should worry any home team.
A tale of two collapses – I
For the 16th Test running, Virat Kohli picked a different playing eleven. He constantly professes the horses for courses policy, and the bringing in Bhuvneshwar Kumar in place of Umesh Yadav was a key pointer to how he expected the pitch to play. In doing so, he was also preparing for the eventuality of losing the toss and bowling first.
He won the toss instead, and found himself at the crease with the score reading 28/2, as two things took place thereafter. First, Shikhar Dhawan failed on his comeback to the playing eleven after sitting out two Tests. Let it be said here that it was the right call to pick him ahead of Gautam Gambhir, for it was illogical to assume the latter would simply walk into the playing eleven after two years.
Yet, the window for Dhawan to perform and hold on to his spot has become smaller. In selecting Gambhir, the new selectors have sent a message that there are now four players in contention for two opening slots as India plays 13 Tests at home this season. Given Kohli’s penchant for change, you never know who will play or who won’t, and loose shots in the second over of a Test won’t help Dhawan’s case.
Second, the New Zealand pacers were getting the ball to talk. Selecting three quick bowlers meant that stand-in skipper Ross Taylor could under-bowl his spinners, at least initially with the new ball. Left arm orthodox spinner Mitchell Santner had bowled in the ninth and second overs, respectively, of the two innings in Kanpur. Here he came on in the 14th over. Murali Vijay had edged a beautiful outswinger from Matt Henry to the wicketkeeper by then.
It is alarming that for a third successive innings, skipper Kohli – one of the most highly rated batsmen in the world – couldn’t curb his naturally aggressive instinct and chased a wide delivery from Trent Boult. Just three deliveries before his dismissal, he had creamed a boundary through covers. And then he got out tamely when he should have left the ball alone, misjudging just like he did twice in Kanpur.
Strike-rate and footwork
“The team management is right in demanding attacking batting from him,” said Arvind Pujara, Cheteshwar’s father and batting coach since childhood. “But I would also like to point out that sometimes you need to play for time. Test cricket is mostly about situations.”
This Indian middle-order specifically depends on the start given by the top order, as is proven by the constant bid to have an attacking batsman at No.3. With the score reading 57/3, all talk about Pujara’s strike-rate went out of the window. For the record, he scored at only 39.7 on day one at Eden Gardens. What mattered more was that he batted for 219 deliveries, and put on 141 runs with Ajinkya Rahane.
With the ball doing something on a relaid pitch with variable bounce, the duo were India’s best bet for some semblance of sanity. Primarily because, barring Vijay, they are the only two batsmen solid enough in their technique to let the bowlers get on top and still not lose their wickets. There was this one beauty from Boult, an outswinger just before lunch, and the batsman played and missed, perhaps only because the kind of form he is in.
Rahane toed the same line of patience. He looked to use his feet, rocking back and forth, making that initial movement forward as he judged the length of the ball. He was a tad more aggressive than Pujara, especially against the spinners. But for these two batsmen, India would have been in the dumps.
A tale of two collapses – II
“Ideally we would have liked to be 250-odd for four or five down. But we played some poor shots today,” said Rahane. Let it be said here that the opposition was on the money too, coaxing those shots from the eager Indian batsmen.
Boult set up Kohli, and Neil Wagner did the same with Pujara with his nagging line, with Martin Guptill pouching the one half chance that the batsman gave. India lost 4 for 103 in the final session, and will be lucky if they get to Rahane’s desired first innings total of 325.
The key wicket herein was of Rohit Sharma, again. For once, he didn’t get out to an erratic shot, instead failing to comprehend the extra bounce from Jeetan Patel and giving a catch to short leg. Yet, it underlines the inability of the batsman to perform in a pressure situation.
He had made a sedate half-century in the second innings at Kanpur, but India didn’t need those runs. They were needed today, and he failed to get going, predictably enough.
Rahane took the blame on himself, and put some on Pujara too. “We were set batsmen. One of us should have gone on to make a big hundred and carried the innings forward,” he said.
He's right, but only to an extent. For a second time on day one of a Test match in this series, a majority of Indian batsmen gifted their wickets to the opposition. And that ought to ring a bell loud and clear in the dressing room.
