Shoaib Bashir’s reaction after he was bowled by Ravindra Jadeja at Dharamshala summed up, in a way, the five-match Test series between India and England. The tall off-spinner signalled a review immediately.
England, after scoring a sensational come-from-behind victory in the first Test at Hyderabad, failed to get a grip on things against a formidable Indian team that played most of the series without some of its most formidable players.
If a team could win a series 4-1 without men like Virat Kohli, K.L. Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Shami against a confident side that had behind it some of the most stunning Test wins of the last couple of years, that is quite something. India’s comprehensive triumph should rank among its finest.
Not just because it outplayed a strong team led and managed by a daring, successful duo. More because the victory was achieved on sporting wickets, not the square turners that usually greeted and unnerved the visiting teams to India over the last few years.
India’s decision to prepare truer pitches may also have got something to do with the kind of aggressive cricket England under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes had been playing. The Bazball era had begun with a bang, winning 10 out of 11 Tests, some of them with audacious batting in the fourth innings.
Bazball got off to a great start in India too, winning the Hyderabad Test despite conceding a lead of 190. An extraordinary knock by Ollie Pope (196) was complemented by debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley’s seven-wicket haul in the second innings.
Rohit Sharma’s men bounced back in style, just as they did against South Africa a month before in Cape Town. They could overcome the absence of the injured pair of Rahul and Jadeja at Visakhapatnam, where they won by 106 runs.
Victories at Rajkot and Ranchi ensured they would stretch their remarkable unbeaten run at home to 17 series, with a Test to spare. It is doubtful if any of those series was as profitable for India as this one.
This series has given India an exceptional wicketkeeper-batter in Dhruv Jurel (his temperament and technique suggest he could be considered for batting alone if needed).
Sarfaraz Khan, when finally given a chance, showed much is right with Ranji Trophy; as did Akash Deep and Devdutt Padikkal (the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee deserves credit).
Yashasvi Jaiswal proved he could be one of the most feared batters across formats. Shubman Gill showed how unwarranted the doubts about his forms were.
Jasprit Bumrah, R. Ashwin, Jadeja and a deadlier looking Kuldeep Yadav proved the pitch didn’t matter that much.
