INDORE: After Australia’s soul-destroying collapse in New Delhi, the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was expected to be academic. India were, conventional wisdom went, three days away from a 3-0 lead when both the teams landed at Indore. That feeling was heightened when they won the toss on a pitch that already had plenty of bite and bark before a ball was even bowled. That was when the script changed.
While it was a team effort in the way they came back to win the Test, one man who will win plaudits is captain Steve Smith. Shorn of elder statesmen Pat Cummins and David Warner and carrying several out-of-form batters as well as players just coming back from injury, Smith dipped into his reservoir of experience.
He set challenging fields, asked multiple questions of India’s batters and didn’t allow the game to drift at any one point. An example of his captaincy is the way they planned and executed the dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara on Thursday. He removed the slip and positioned himself at leg-slip, a bold move on a surface where spinners were challenging the outside edge as well.
Nathan Lyon’s buy-in was secured and they went with a 2-7 field. India’s No 3 clipped an incoming delivery a little too well and Smith pouched a fine catch to turn this game for one final time. He also didn’t ignore Mitchell Starc after the ball had gotten old. He brought him on against a rampaging Shreyas Iyer and the pacer dismissed him. He kept Todd Murphy from one end for a continued period of time even if the rookie hadn’t gotten a wicket; it was for the simple reason that Murphy had totally dried the runs from one end (0/18 in 14 overs in the second innings).
Smith, who became only the second visiting captain after Alastair Cook to pick up multiple Test wins in India since 2012, explained his reasons for some of these decisions. It revealed a man who remained in love with the idea of skippering a team, especially in India. “India is a part of the world I love captaining,” he explained in the post match press conference.
“It’s a game of chess, every ball means something. It’s good fun moving people and trying to make the batter think and something different and just playing games with them. It’s probably my favourite place in the world to captain. You think back home in Australia, you generally play with a 3rd slip or putting a square-leg up or back or pulling a third slip to cover... there’s not much that goes on, you sort of stick to the same game plan and trust what you are trying to do. In this part of the world, you have to be very proactive. Every ball is an event and that ball can dictate what happens the ball after. Something that I really love. I thought I did it well this week and it was good fun.”
In case Cummins isn’t back for the deciding Test at Ahmedabad, Smith will be back to moving the pieces on the chess board knowing he can make it 2-2.