Year Ender 2021: From Gabba to Centurion - A Historic Year for Indian Cricket

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That they came in an age of stifling bio-secure bubbles, a fallout of the raging pandemic that still shows little signs of abating, makes India’s Test march through 2021 even more compelling.

India's 2021 began with a memorable win at Gabba and ended with a historic show in Centurion. (AFP Photo)
India's 2021 began with a memorable win at Gabba and ended with a historic show in Centurion. (AFP Photo)

During his two years as Indian captain between 2005 and 2007, Rahul Dravid oversaw many a memorable victory. Under his stewardship, India ended barren runs in the Caribbean and England, registering their first Test series victory in the West Indies in 35 years in 2006 and following it up with their first series triumph in Old Blighty in 21 years when they completed a 1-0 win in 2007.

India also emphatically shed their tag as dodgy chasers in 50-over cricket, stacking up an unprecedented 16 wins on the bounce batting second.

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    And yet, such is Dravid’s lot that his captaincy tenure will primarily be remembered for the team’s first-round exit at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

    Also Read: After Gabba, Lord’s, India Register Complete Win In Centurion

    It is unlikely that a similar fate will befall the Indian team of 2021. Admittedly, they made a meal of their T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE in October-November, failing to advance beyond the group stage after successive losses to Pakistan and New Zealand right at the start of the competition. But even a cursory look at the balance sheet will reveal that, that setback notwithstanding, there are more entries in the blue than the red, particularly in Test cricket.

    In keeping with their commitment to the longer format, India played 14 Tests – the final Test in England had to be rescheduled for the summer of 2022 following a covid scare in the Indian camp — with eight of them being away from home. Under first stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane and then Virat Kohli, India registered eight wins, suffered three losses and were involved in three stalemates. Those are the cold facts. As is the norm, these numbers don’t tell the full tale.

    Four of their eight victories came overseas as India pulled off victories in Australia, England and South Africa in the same calendar year for the second time in four years. In 2018, those wins came in Johannesburg, Nottingham and Adelaide. This time around, India ruled the roost in acknowledged bastions in Australia and South Africa, becoming the first side to beard the Aussies at their Gabba fortress since 1988 and the first Asian nation ever to come up trumps in Centurion, where the Proteas have lost a mere three out of 27 Tests since their readmission in 1991.

    Also Read: The Legacy of Ravi Shastri

    In themselves, these are monumental accomplishments. They speak to the resilience, adaptability and outstanding skillsets of a bunch that knows not what it means to take a backward step. They are testimony to India’s burning desire to be as much of a force away from home as in the comfort zone of their backyard. They are the culmination of a sea change in the Indian mindset from 2017, when there was a studied, deliberate and perceptible shift towards stacking up the pace resources.

    That they came in an age of stifling bio-secure bubbles, a fallout of the raging pandemic that still shows little signs of abating, makes India’s Test march through 2021 even more compelling.

    The first indications that this could be a year to savour came in Sydney in early January, in the traditional pink Test against the Aussies. Even the most ardent Indian supporter feared a hammering of epic proportions after the 36 all out meltdown in the pink-ball series opener in Adelaide in December last year, after which Kohli returned home on paternity leave. By the end of that Test, Mohammed Shami too was ruled out with a broken forearm, meaning that in one fell swoop, India had lost two key, seasoned influencers against a full-strength Aussie side.

    Enter Rahane, stage left. The Mumbaikar is no stranger to filling in for Kohli, but few expected him to pull rabbits out of the hat. Remarkably, Rahane did precisely that.

    With a century for the ages, Rahane masterminded a stirring revival in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, inspiring the team to an against-all-odds, series-levelling triumph. As it turned out, that was merely the appetiser before the main course.

    In January, India became the toast, and envy, of the cricket world with two epic performances. In Sydney, a hamstrung Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin, his back seizing up so badly that he was afraid to sit down lest he should not be able to get up, defied Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon for more than three hours to scrap out a fantastic draw when all seemed lost. That set the stage for a grand finale in Brisbane, the most impregnable fortress in all of Australia.

    By the time India arrived at the Gabba, they had lost more than half their original starters. Joining Kohli and Shami on the sidelines were Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Vihari and Ashwin. The Indian bowling attack for the Test had two debutants – T Natarajan and Washington Sundar – and a combined experience of less than 10 games. They had no business being even competitive. Fortunately, no one seemed to have told them that.

    Fuelled by the ambition of youth with Mohammed Siraj, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Sundar and Shardul Thakur in the forefront, and shored up by the experience of the indomitable Cheteshwar Pujara, India mounted a stunning assault on a record fourth-innings target of 328. By the time the dust settled, even the hard-nosed Aussies couldn’t help but doff their hat despite being conquered by three wickets. India’s 2-1 triumph in Australia in 2018-19 carried an asterisk by its side. After all, the Aussies had been without David Warner and Steve Smith.

    This second successive triumph came with no such riders. With all due respect to the Class of 2001, this must go down as India’s greatest series victory, ever.

    Within days of arriving from Australia, India bounced back from the loss of the first Test against England to sweep to a 3-1 success that firmed up their place in the final of the inaugural World Test Championship, against New Zealand in Southampton in June. Defeat in the one-off Test was the first precursor to another barren year as far as ICC trophies went, but it looked no more than an aberration by the time India’s pacers put England through the wringer at Lord’s and The Oval.

    While the three home wins against Joe Root’s men were fashioned by spinners Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel, the overseas wins came courtesy a gun pace attack with Shami and Bumrah the spearheads, Siraj an able understudy and Thakur slipping nicely into the fourth seamer’s role. The seeds sowed by Kohli, head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach B Arun in 2017 had germinated into fruit-bearing trees, the brains trust’s foresight and astute planning manifesting itself in epochal overseas triumphs that Indian teams and fans in the past could barely afford to dream of.

    Against this backdrop, the disaster that the T20 World Cup was does stick out like a sore thumb. Fatigued mentally and physically as they went straight into the competition at the completion of phase 2 of IPL 2021, India were limp, tame and timid against Pakistan and New Zealand, unrecognisable as the all-conquering Test force they were otherwise. Kohli had already announced his decision to quit the T20 captaincy after the tournament, as had Shastri, Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar. A new era awaited.

    Unsurprisingly, Rohit Sharma – the bulwark of the Indian batting in England alongside his rejuvenated opening partner KL Rahul – was elevated as T20 captain. By the end of the year, Rohit had also replaced Kohli as the ODI captain. The BCCI’s handling of this captaincy swap left a lot to be desired with board president Sourav Ganguly and Kohli providing contrasting accounts of how events unfolded. An uneasy truce has been bartered for now, but who’s to say this powder keg won’t explode anytime soon.

    The BCCI did cover itself in some glory by getting Dravid to agree to step into Shastri’s shoes. Despite his initial reluctance, Dravid is a natural fit. He oversaw the Under-19 and ‘A’ teams for four years from 2015, many of his proteges are now in the senior side and India are fast approaching the throes of transition. Dravid’s firm, steady guiding hand couldn’t have lent itself to the greater cause at a more opportune time.

    History will reveal that in 2021, India were driven by the youth brigade. Yes, experienced hands did chip in with Ashwin leading the way while going past Harbhajan Singh as India’s third highest Test wicket-taker and Shami and Bumrah holding their own. Rohit lapped up his elevation as Test opener with defining performances in England and Rahul showed up the folly of overlooking his class for two years, but it was the Pants, the Sirajs and the Shreyas Iyers that sparkled the brightest. From their coming of age stems the optimism that 2021 isn’t an end in itself, merely the dawn of a new era.

    That being said, some of the more established names are on borrowed time. Ishant Sharma, Pujara and Rahane have been feeding off reputation for a while, and with a hungry, motivated pack snapping at their heels, it’s impossible not to envisage the passing of the baton in the immediate future. Kohli himself has struggled for meaningful contributions, without an international hundred for 25 months and threatening to lapse into the bad habits of 2014 when he netted just 134 runs in 10 innings in England. If he can rediscover his famed single-mindedness and pull off a coup by leading India to their first series win in South Africa, what a coup that will be!

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      Speaking of coups, Ganguly and BCCI secretary Jay Shah pulled off a second screamer in two months by getting VVS Laxman to accept the role of Head – Cricket at the National Cricket Academy, a post vacated by Dravid. It is to this Dravid-Laxman off-field partnership that Indian cricket will look as it seeks to ensure that while the present is perfect, the future is far from tense.

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