Well begun is ONLY HALF DONE, goes a pithy saying that best illustrated the much vaunted English campaign, stymied and stunted as the tour wore on. Their changing room at the end of the tour may well have resembled a mortuary as they surpassed themselves in achieving ignominious defeats. They were trounced 4-nil, even as India pillaged and plundered its scarce resources to hand out another drubbing.
They plunged to an abysmal bottomless pit as India rubber-stamped another emphatic win in Chennai, which looked highly improbable, as late as lunch on the last day! The ghastly trauma of Mirpur was revisited on the last day as Jadeja and co. nailed their coffin, on what seemed a placid deck.
Shipwrecked campaigns of ancient mariners might have been less grave and melancholic compared to the pathetic display of this England test side, which may well have adequately masqueraded as a club outfit!
India, on the other hand, not keen on giving lifelines to its prisoners, were well served by its "second string" in Chennai, notwithstanding previous test match heroes like Virat, Ashwin & Vijay, enduring rare and poor returns. Such was its reserve ammunition that their gas tank never seemed empty, as they doused their opponent's dying embers, which promised more after Rajkot but delivered little.
"Mother of Mismatches" may well have best described their lifeless and comatose like batting stints in both the second innings of Mumbai and Chennai. 7 defeats in 9 matches would leave any team in tatters, but such series of manic self-destructions by this England team are hard acts to follow.
A dead fish rots from the head and Cook's indifferent stints combined with the poor choice of team selections and wasted opportunities contributed to the poor mismatch.
That India have mustered an unbeaten run of 18 tests lately, which includes 14 wins, is a telltale sign of a side that has transmitted seamlessly, filling the void of its yesteryear stalwarts. Virat and his boys couldn't be any better prepared than they are now to shrug the mantle of poor travellers, hanging over them like an ugly smell, cometh winter of 2017, when they begin to travel to SA, England and Australia.
Not too many sides have the luxury of finding match winners in crucial moments of test matches, time and again like India have managed in this series. A happy headache may well sum up the mindset of the management and the selectors as they sit to finalise the squad to combat the Aussies due to visit soon.
The "Biggest plusses" have been the healthy top order with KL Rahul finding feet and form and the middle order, beefed up by his statemate Karun Nair 's stupendous triple ton. The advent of the allrounders also enabled Kohli to play 5 bowlers and allowed for flexibility in options. Such a vital edge these emerging all-rounders provided!
The attritional lower order runs from Ashwin, Jadeja and Jayant Yadav surely has emboldened the think tank 's strategy. The "big moments " in the series were fire fought with remarkable consistency and playing 5 bowlers may well be its template in away tours too, where it is more of a compulsion given 20 wickets are harder to come by in tracks that don't quite spin.
Although India had its long litany of injuries, of multi-various kinds, the key was that the disaster management in terms of having battle-ready players in its team sheet was a huge heartening factor.
Like the feisty Parthiv who shaped a stunning comeback after 8 years, filling in for Saha or Karun Nair, who looked oh! so composed and versatile to shore up the middle order vacated by a lately flat Rahane's enforced absence caused by an injury. It is not that the management would wish for injuries to its players to mitigate its otherwise happy headache, but to leave out a fit again Rahane or Saha for the first match versus Australia would be a seriously tough call.
The fast bowlers of India, although not quite as tall as their English counterparts, still ran in zealously and got vital wickets, dampening partnerships at nascent stages. English bowlers might have done a tad better had they renewed their appointments with an English length of bowling on these slow-low pitches. On the contrary, they were keen to bounce, compromised in its basic execution of time-honoured good lines and good lengths.
The incessant productivity line of a conveyor belt churning these players is something that has not happened by accident as it is a result and reflection of assiduous and hard domestic structure, where players go through the rough and tumble, cut and dried as it were, and ready as finished products, to take the international might.
The beauty of this near whitewash of the English is that it was orchestrated not on diabolical decks and crater like minefields, resembling cricket pitches, but on time-tested pitches which withered and assisted spin with the passage of time. That England could win 4 out of the 5 tosses, ratchet up 400 plus at Mumbai and Chennai, yet lose by an innings, summed up their lack of collective will to fight, not to speak of a distinct absence of desperation to turn the tables on their mighty opponent.
That they lacked quality world class spinners hurt them no end, despite having India under the pump on a few occasions. Simply put, they abdicated the kitchen when the heat was on!
Also Read: 5 Takeaways for India from the Test series
The tired tag line of "tigers at home, and lambs abroad", haunts every test team that travels and the once mighty Australia are no exceptions. Headline writers screamed "Aussie Annihilation" as skeletons tumbled off their cupboard in early 2013 as they not so much lost four nil as much as lost pride.
An encore, albeit not quite in the same proportion, threatens to envelop, as lately their once "cloak of invincibility", against all comers, has been punctured by the resurgent Proteas, who incidentally travel well to Australia. The scary run chase by Pakistan at Gabba also exposed its veneer and bowling resources. All at home, too! It further exacerbated their fall from a lofty pedestal and the road on the mend is not without its bumps and bottlenecks.
Thus, one may well surmise that it is "India's series to lose", as they look to hand out lessons in "tenacity and fierce will" to its original founding fathers, who may well have held a copyright to such virtues, i.e Australia!
How the once high and mighty have fallen! Therein lies the beauty of Sport.
Go India Go!
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