Column

Memonics

The superb victory at Mohali suggests strongly a shift in the balance of power in world cricket, but India will have to win the series from here to give this belief more credence. Australia may be down, but are not yet out. With two Tests still remaining, any complacency could queer the pitch for the home team.

For all that, this was a terrific win, India dominating from first ball to last, and in which almost every player made such a significant contribution that Sachin Tendulkar becoming the world’s highest run-getter became almost a sideshow. After the drawn first Test there was scepticism in some quarters – this writer included – that India might have been a tad too defensive. But at Mohali, this was proved to be completely unfounded.

The win was comprehensive and so easily achieved that even the Aussies would have been flummoxed. Have they suddenly become so poor or has the Indian team suddenly become so good? It would be risky, if not foolhardy to reach such a conclusion so early, but it is a fact that over the past year, Australia have looked increasingly vulnerable and India increasingly stronger.

The departure of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, and Damien Martyn robbed Australia of some classy players. India, in the meanwhile, have been able over the last few years to infuse outstanding young talent like Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma and most significantly Mahendra Singh Dhoni— and at Mohali Amit Mishra — with the passion and hunger to be the best in the world.

The opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir is not only breathtaking in strokeplay, but also prolific enough to progress to the class of Greenidge-Haynes and Hayden-Langer combos. The brouhaha over the ‘oldies’ in the middle-order has been proved to be overplayed. Sure, Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman will have to join Ganguly into retirement at some stage, but right now they are delivering the goods.

The biggest gain has been in the bowling. The arrival of Ishant Sharma has added shark-jaws to the pace attack, and Zaheer Khan has finally found his métier with his sharp angles and dangerous reverse swing. These two have had the Aussies hopping, guessing and groping. Not in almost two decades has an Indian pace attack been as threateningon home pitches as in the first two Tests in this series.

The spin bowling, for long the fiefdom of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, has some outstanding young bowlers banging on the door for a place in the national team. Amit Mishra’s success in his debut match not only puts the selectors into a piquant situation for the remainder of the series, but is also testimony to the fact that the spin talent in India, despite the constant laments, is not meagre. In fact, with bowlers like Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha in the reserves it has perhaps never been richer.

Fielding remains the one big problem area, and could possibly be the one reason why India could struggle to get to the top spot or remain there for long. That’s where hard work is needed, for a champion side is defined by its unrelenting pursuit of success. The West Indies through the late 1970s and 80s — and the Aussies since then — were the number one in the world not only because they had outstanding talent, but also because they never took success lightly. One win fed the ambition for the next and so on till their domination was utter and complete.

India will have to show similar ruthlessness. This is a funny game, if one may use a timeless cliché, and if the psychological stranglehold over Ponting’s team is relaxed, there could be a turnaround in the series that could cause more grief than
just surprise.