The Shorter Wisden 2013 (63 page)

Cook’s England side were almost certainly better than Gower’s, who were missing Ian Botham (resting), Graham Gooch and John Emburey (both banned). But before celebrating such an
objective assessment from an old-timer, let us end with this thought: since the talents of the 1984-85 side were so relatively modest, perhaps their achievement was the greater.

Vic Marks toured India in 1984-85 as an off-spinner (but didn’t play a Test), and in 2012-13 as a journalist for
The Guardian, The Observer
and
Test
Match Special.

THE INDIAN REACTION

A
NJALI
D
OSHI

The Hindi words for “revenge” and “change” are similar, which offered the Indian media an ironic twist and plenty of scope for cheeky puns during the
Test series. The rabble-rousing theme of revenge (
badla
) on England’s arrival transformed into a mocking lament about how nothing had changed (
kuch nahin badla
) – a
reference to India’s 8–0 losing streak in England and Australia – followed by a demand for, yes, sweeping changes (
badal dalo
).

Clearly, nobody saw the drubbing coming, least of all the official broadcasters – Rupert Murdoch’s Star network – who ran jingoistic promos in colloquial Hindi asking whether
India would beat England to a pulp. Once that question had been answered, the promos were pulled off air.

The revenge rhetoric played at full volume when India won the First Test at Ahmedabad, but lost its voice after defeat at Mumbai. M. S. Dhoni’s obsession with pitches came in for sharp
criticism, as did the listlessness of the Indian spinners. But it was the hopeless surrender at Eden Gardens that culminated in an uproar over the “humiliation at home” on perpetually
hyper news networks, such as Times Now, Aaj Tak and Star News, and fever-pitched calls for “heads to roll” in several newspapers, including the
Times of India
.

Just when things could not, it seemed, get any worse, came former selector Mohinder Amarnath’s claim on CNN-IBN that Dhoni had managed to hold on to the captaincy earlier in the year only
because N. Srinivasan, the BCCI president, had overruled the selectors’ decision to sack him. The insinuation was obvious: Srinivasan, vice-chairman of India Cements, the company that owns
the Chennai Super Kings IPL team, was out to protect his franchise’s brand equity by ensuring their skipper remained India’s captain too.

This outburst from Amarnath, who had lost his job after only a year, threatened to overshadow India’s worst performance at home since 1999-2000. But it was followed by more quickfire
autopsies from former cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar, who attacked them for “treating Test cricket in a cavalier manner” in the era of Twenty20, and demanded Dhoni’s instant
removal. Only a couple of pieces really attempted to examine the IPL effect on Indian cricket, and the BCCI’s role in the mess. But it was Dhoni himself who came up with the most telling take
on India’s priorities, saying this crisis was “not even close” to the early exit from the 2007 World Cup.

India’s crammed schedule provides little time for introspection. So what could have been a watershed moment prompting serious probing by the media and internal reviews by the board, which
reported around £100m in revenue in 2011-12, was soon forgotten. After India won the first Twenty20 game against England, newspaper headlines exclaimed: “Make winning a habit” and
“Bashing over, time for bash”. When they lost the second at Mumbai, it was already time to preview the limited-overs series against Pakistan.

It was no surprise, perhaps, that the most vociferous critic of India’s trouncing was an Englishman. Geoffrey Boycott was the only commentator “free from BCCI shackles”, as his
Star Cricket colleague Sanjay Manjrekar let slip on Twitter. The tweet disappeared from his timeline within minutes.

Anjali Doshi is a columnist for
Wisden India
and a former cricket editor with the Indian TV channel
NDTV 24x7.

INDIA v ENGLAND

First Test Match

D
EAN
W
ILSON

At Ahmedabad, November 15–19, 2012. India won by nine wickets. Toss: India. Test debut: N. R. D. Compton.

Anything feels possible on the first morning of a Test. Start well, and the game can unroll like a red carpet at a VIP function. Start badly, and you won’t get past the bouncer on the
door. At the Sardar Patel Stadium, India had a blast, while England’s name was not even on the guest list. India’s nine-wicket win did not flatter them, and left England pondering
whether their repeated claims to have improved in Asian conditions now bordered on the delusional. Cook, in his first Test as permanent captain, was immense – but only after his team had
followed on, 330 behind, and India had found a player apparently capable of matching the sangfroid of the retired Rahul Dravid at No. 3. While Pujara was busy scoring 247 runs without being
dismissed – 41 of them as opener in the second innings after Gambhir had returned home to Delhi following the death of his grandmother – the debate about a fading batting line-up seemed
totally irrelevant.

Not for the first time in 2012, England’s batsmen were flummoxed by quality spin, the absence of which from their three warm-up games had lent those matches an unreal air. To make matters
worse, they picked the wrong side, omitting Monty Panesar and opting instead for a three-pronged seam attack that was badly shown up by the home pair of Yadav and Zaheer Khan. Swann admitted the
pitch had been even slower and lower than England had feared, though he fought hard, taking six of the nine Indian wickets to fall and moving past Jim Laker (193) as the most prolific English Test
off-spinner of all time. But 13 in the match for Ashwin and Ojha, India’s slow bowlers, told its own tale.

From the moment Cook lost the toss, England were up against it. More specifically on the opening day, they were up against Sehwag, who hurried India to 120 without loss at lunch and, by the 40th
over, had completed his 23rd Test century – though only his second against England – from just 90 balls. It had been two years since his previous hundred, but this was worth the wait,
full of languid square-drives and matter-of-fact lofts down the ground. When Sehwag was second out for a run-a-ball 117, missing a mow at Swann, India already had 224, and England – who had
been slow to respond to his steers to the unguarded third-man region – were lamenting the absence of Steven Finn, who had failed to recover from a thigh injury. Yet their attack of Anderson,
Broad, Bresnan and Swann had been at the heart of the 4–0 win over these opponents in 2011. That, though, had been at home. This was Ahmedabad, the city where Gandhi had begun his salt march,
and England – as if in homage – were looking distinctly non-aggressive.

Tendulkar came and went quickly, carelessly swatting Swann to deep midwicket, where Patel seemed to be waiting for the miscue, but that merely focused the attention on Pujara, who responded with
the kind of remorseless concentration that had once brought him three triple-centuries in all cricket in the space of a month. Fortunate to get away with a leading edge on eight off Bresnan as
Anderson misjudged the flight at mid-on, Pujara – from nearby Rajkot – gave his fellow Gujaratis plenty to cheer with an unbeaten double-hundred of stylistic and technical brilliance.
In all, he thwarted England for a shade over eight and a half hours, and allowed Yuvraj Singh – returning to Test cricket for the first time in a year, after a battle with cancer – the
freedom to settle in. They added 130 for India’s fifth wicket.

England’s reply to 521 for eight began badly. The debutant Nick Compton crawled to nine before he was gated by a delicious off-break from Ashwin, who thus reached 50 Test wickets in his
ninth match, quicker than any other Indian (Anil Kumble got there in ten). With 20 minutes of the second evening still to play, Anderson emerged as nightwatchman, but fell almost immediately to
Ojha. And when Ashwin removed Trott, caught at short leg, the crumble was on. It continued next morning. In his first international match since reintegration, Pietersen got into a tangle against
Ojha, bowled middle stump as his bat came across the line of the ball in a shot that had become known as the curtain-rail, before Bell fecklessly chipped his first delivery to deepish mid-off.
Experienced observers wondered whether it was the worst stroke they had seen from an established Test batsman. Cook edged a drive off Ashwin to slip and, from 97 for seven, only Prior’s 48
helped England to as many as 191. Ojha’s five-for was the seventh by a spinner against England in 2012, and his control of flight and direction a joy to behold.

Shortly before 2pm on the third day, England were asked to bat again. Things could hardly get worse; in fact, they got rather better. As one of only two batsmen in his side – along with
Pietersen – to have scored a Test century in India, Cook took it upon himself to show that playing spin need not necessarily be torture for an Englishman. Compton tucked into his
captain’s slipstream, and their stand of 123 was not broken until the fourth morning. The demise of Compton, hit in line with leg stump by Zaheer, proved India had more than just slow bowling
up their sleeve. And though Trott and the frenetic Pietersen – bowled behind his legs on the sweep as he moved too far across – both fell cheaply to Ojha, the next two blows were struck
by Yadav. Almost ignored in the first innings, he now trapped Bell and Patel with successive deliveries to reduce England to 199 for five, still 131 behind. If Patel was unfortunate after appearing
to edge the ball, then Yadav’s modus operandi was a lesson for England, whose seamers failed to find the same degree of reverse swing. While their trio of quicks would finish the match with
combined figures of 72–10–255–1, India’s duo managed 72.3–16–166–7 – and they were faster, too.

Once more, England rallied. Cook, grateful for the absence of the DRS when he missed a sweep off Ojha on 41, was at his obdurate best, and Prior a willing ally. At stumps on the fourth day
England led by ten, with five wickets in hand and thoughts turning to Johannesburg 1995-96, when Mike Atherton and Jack Russell – another captain/keeper combination – had pulled off
their great escape. But Prior chipped a return catch to Ojha in the tenth over of the final morning to fall for 91 – among England wicketkeepers, only Warwickshire’s Dick Spooner, with
92 at Calcutta in 1951-52, had scored more in a Test in India – and end a partnership of 157 in more than 60 overs. Soon Cook was gone too, bowled by one from Ojha that spun back and kept
slightly low. Another eight minutes and he would have outlasted Graeme Fowler’s epic of nine hours 23 minutes at Madras in 1984-85 – still the longest innings played for England in
India. The rest followed quickly, leaving Ojha with Test-best match figures of nine for 165.

Dhoni immediately called for the pitch at Mumbai, venue for the Second Test, to spin from the first ball. India were already preparing for the kill. But it was a conviction based on
England’s first innings rather than their second. And Cook was evidently not in the mood for his side to make the same mistake twice.

Man of the Match:
C. A. Pujara.

U. T. Yadav did not bat.

Anderson 27–7–75–1; Broad 24–1–97–0; Bresnan 19–2–73–0; Swann 51–8–144–5; Patel
31–3–96–1; Pietersen 8–1–25–1.
Second innings
—Anderson 2–0–10–0; Swann 7.3–1–46–1; Patel
6–0–24–0.

Ashwin 27–9–80–3; Zaheer Khan 15–7–23–1; Ojha 22.2–8–45–5; Yuvraj Singh 3–0–12–0; Yadav
7–2–14–1.
Second innings
—Yadav 23–2–70–3; Ojha 55–16–120–4; Ashwin 43–9–111–1; Sehwag
1–0–1–0; Zaheer Khan 27.3–5–59–2; Tendulkar 1–0–8–0; Yuvraj Singh 4–0–17–0.

Umpires: Aleem Dar and A. L. Hill. Third umpire: S. Asnani.

Referee: R. S. Mahanama.

INDIA v ENGLAND

Second Test Match