Brendon McCullum has been credited with transforming the attitude of England’s players, their new brand of freewheeling cricket doing wonders.
‘Bazball’ is a term the England head coach dislikes and feels is “silly”, but he has brought about a change in the players’ mindset.
It’s early days for Gautam Gambhir but he too has shown the intent not to walk away from the daredevilry which fetched him enormous success as a captain and coach in the IPL. In his first Test series as head coach, his team snatched victory in a game in which only 35 overs had been bowled in the first three days.
The second and third days were non-starters and to extend their points tally at the top of the World Test Championship table, India needed to pick 17 wickets and chase a target. It seemed a race against time in Kanpur.
But in Rohit Sharma, Gambhir has a leader who will always dare to take a risk.
India first dismissed Bangladesh for 233 in the first innings at the start of play on the fourth morning, dismissing their last seven wickets for just 121 runs. Rohit then launched a merciless attack on the Bangladesh bowlers with the bat. Yashasvi Jaiswal and the others never let the momentum slip before India declared on 285/9 in just 34.4 overs to have another go at the opposition in the closing stages of the day.
Bangladesh never recovered from Ravindra Jadeja’s triple strike on Tuesday. The visitors succumbed to the pressure on a wicket, which wasn’t treacherous and were bowled out for 146 in an extended final session.
India lost three wickets but completed the 95-run chase with consummate ease. Jaiswal’s 43-ball fifty set up the chase for the 2-0 series sweep.
Rohit’s team showed the right resolve and were ready to take the plunge, aware that they had only six sessions in hand. The fearless approach of T20 cricket left an indelible mark on the red ball game depicting the changing face of Test cricket.
More than 13 years ago, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team had relinquished a chance to go 2-0 up at Windsor Park, Roseau, Dominica.
Chasing 180 for victory on the final day against the West Indies, India gave up the chase with 86 needed in 15 overs and seven wickets remaining. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were at the crease with Virat Kohli and Dhoni to follow. But none dared and the Indians’ walk-away left the gathering silently disappointed.
But the message now is clear — ‘We will not shy away from challenges in our bid to be among the best in the business.’
Rohit said as much after their sixth Test win in a row on a pitch that “didn’t have much for the bowlers”.
“We had to think a lot (about) how the game can keep moving forward once we lost two-and-a-half days,” Rohit said after the victory.
“When we came on Day IV, we thought, okay, let’s try and get them out as quickly as possible and then see with the bat what we can do. Once they had got 230-odd, we said it was not about the runs we get, but it was about the overs we wanted to bowl at them. It meant we had to try and up the run-rate and score as many as possible...”
Test cricket thus wore a T20 cap as Rohit plundered 23 off 11 balls, including sixes of the first two balls of the innings. Opening partner Jaiswal complemented his efforts with a 72 off 51 balls in the first innings. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul then maintained the momentum.
“It was a risk we were willing to take because when you’re trying to bat like
that, it is very easy that you can get bundled out for a low score as well,” Rohit said.
It is this philosophy which will keep Test cricket alive in these testing times.
