India and England square off in a Test series (starting today) that has the entire cricket world in rapt attention. There is the rubber at stake and in the backdrop is a place in the World Test Championship finals, which is no less significant for both teams. Skipper Virat Kohli’s return to the side considerably bolsters India’s prospects. However, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja are still recovering from fractures suffered in Australia, which means the team is not at full strength.
Some critics aver India will win by a thumping margin. However, sport has a way of showing up such predictions as folly. In 2012-13, for instance, England won the series 2-1 despite losing the first Test. I’ll abide by prudence and keep my fingers crossed. But what one can say without doubt is that India’s extraordinary performance in the Test series against Australia showed the strength and depth of the country’s cricket system. Even the most diehard supporters of Indian cricket could not have expected such a major turnaround after the first Test debacle when the team was bowled out for a paltry 36. Add to that the spate of injuries to key players.
A severely handicapped Indian team looked easy pickings for Australia at a venue where they hadn’t lost a match since 1988, but India pulled off a stirring win at Brisbane with a clutch of inexperienced players. The success of bowlers Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar and T Natarajan—with a combined experience of four Tests!—along with the batting exploits of 22-year-olds Shubman Gill (playing only his third Test) and Rishabh Pant in the last match evoked awe and admiration all over the cricket universe. The body language of these novices was strong, skill quotient high, and resilience and ambition abundantly evident. If anything, they played like seasoned pros, which surprised fans and experts alike, and bewildered the Aussies.
How this was possible has been a subject of intrigue and intense debate since. There is no hard evidence of what specifically worked, but some interesting cues have emerged, the most telling of these from a tweet by Pakistani cricket statistician Mazher Arshad after the amazing Brisbane win. Since 2010, Arshad mentioned in his tweet, India A have played 52 first-class matches, the most by any country. Among young players on the Australia tour, Siraj had played 16 A matches, Saini 14, Hanuma Vihari 12, Mayank Agarwal 10, Gill eight, Prithvi Shaw five and Pant four, which is a very important factoid. It highlights that these rookies actually have had good exposure at the first-class level, including overseas.
All these players, for instance, had played in Australia earlier, which possibly explains why India didn’t suffer the absence of established players too much. It is pertinent that Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav all had five-wicket hauls in Australia playing for India A between 2014 and 2016, so it’s not just the Siraj-Pant generation that has benefited. What’s also helped enormously in the past few years is Rahul Dravid’s influence as mentor-coach at this level. Dravid’s presence not only reduced stage fright among India’s young cricketers, but also helped hone their skills and make them temperamentally sturdier. This was evident in Australia in 2018 and even more so in 2020-21.
Irrespective of mentor/coach at this level, the pattern has been set, which is a boon for Indian cricket. But what happens on either side of the India A tours is no less important in building up the heft of the nation’s cricket currently. All state associations have junior level fixtures like the Cooch Behar and Vinoo Mankad Trophies (under-19 age group), as also the inter-collegiate Dr Yagnik Trophy. These are hard-fought and provide excellent grounding for budding cricketers. The hunt for talent is intensive and deep. Players even from mofussil areas are being sourced and nurtured. Barring a few, players on the recent tour of Australia were not from traditional cricket centres.
Better infrastructure, coaching and training facilities have not only expanded the base of young cricketers manifold, but fuelled ambition to aim higher. India’s impressive record in the under-19 World Cups in the past couple of decades shows how this has been a feeder pipeline for national teams.
Some members of the current team who have come through the under-19 ranks include Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Jadeja and Sundar. And then there is the IPL. For a long while derided as something that would prove destructive to Indian cricket—for technique and hubris—it has actually been a positive influence.
The prospects of making decent financial livelihood gets young players to strive harder and become more competitive. More significantly, what the IPL does is expose India’s players, especially the young ones, to outstanding overseas and domestic talent as teammates or rivals, which would otherwise have been impossible. For instance, Siraj has so much more opportunity to learn from Kohli (on how batsmen think) and Dale Steyn (on how to bowl to top-notch batsmen) as they play for the same team in the IPL. Gill has a chance to understand how outstanding fast bowlers like Pat Cummins think in a crisis, which they may discuss as IPL teammates.
This transfer of information and expertise leads to mitigating fear of mighty reputations and performing on big occasions, very important to succeed at the highest level. Overseas players gain too, but evidence suggests it has helped Indian cricket greater. This does not mean everything about Indian cricket is hunky-dory. Several issues need attention, notably the BCCI’s administration in light of the long-standing Lodha Committee recommendation. This has reached an impasse and needs to be resolved ASAP.
Ayaz Memon (amemon1@gmail.com)
Mumbai-based journalist writing on sports, society and other matters