The 36 in Adelaide and 78 in Leeds reveal the nature of players who can forget the past and only remember the good times.
The current team of India could be his greatest team till date. They won the last two series in Australia and their first in England since 2007. In the ‘Golden Age’ – the Sachin Tendulkar era – India won two Tests in Australia and two Tests in England. He has now equaled that record in less than a year.
Great teams should have the record to show it. Other factors often enter into the calculation – impressive personal performance, manner of winning, consistency, ability to defend, even the aesthetic element. But in the end, numbers matter, and this team has done enough in recent years to qualify as India’s best in nearly nine decades of Test cricket.
There was a period, 2002–2004, when India won Tests at Port of Spain, Leeds, Adelaide, Multan and Rawalpindi. But it was only in Pakistan that they won the series. That team had everything – the world’s best batsman in Tendulkar, opener Virender Sehwag, a middle order that included Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly – veteran writer David Frith thought it was the best line-up in the history of the game. Might be up – and Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath.
There was both weight and elegance, a rare combination. Variety too. And yet, the combinations lacked series wins overseas to show all their power and range. Strange victories were celebrated, in the form of a surprising individual performance.
But looking back, that team did not live up to its potential. It’s one of the ironies of Indian cricket – that their most famous team’s dominance hasn’t been what they should have been.
Barring Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, the current team lacks the authority of the former. that does not matter. There is no Laxman who has made the audience cry for the beauty of his batting or there is no Tendulkar who has made the opposition cry. No left-armor from Zaheer’s finesse. It doesn’t matter, because it has steel. Again, apart from Kohli, there is no player yet who is an automatic selection in an all-time team, a fantasy team with players from the Tendulkar generation.
team from heart
This team has heart. He went to bat and was pushed to the wall on the opening day at the Oval scoring 127 for seven. But with great insistence he erased the handwriting. Only one bowler Mohammad Siraj took five wickets in four victories in Australia and England. The wickets are well shared. There have been only three centuries, and twice India have come back after being dismissed for less than 100.
The 36 in Adelaide and 78 in Leeds serve to highlight the nature of players who can forget the past and only remember the good times. This is a rare quality in an individual, rare even in a team. In the past, Indian teams always had some outstanding individuals on whom everything rested. When Sunil Gavaskar got out, half the team was gone. If great spinners were to be collared, there would be none until Kapil Dev came along, and if they had a bad day, that was it.
For the first time ever, Indians can turn to an old kitty and say, ‘If Bumrah doesn’t get you, Shami must do’. Or sit back rest assured that someone will make a significant score. And his most successful bowler he hasn’t played yet!
In the 1960s, India won only one series abroad in New Zealand. It helped consolidate India’s greatest strength: spin bowling. That most romantic generation led by a Nawab, who had an essentially amateurish spirit, was essential. When India performed with greater consistency, it was also necessary to represent Tendulkar.
All this before a group of professionals led by Kohli could come to the fore. When India first became No. 1 in 2009, they had not won a series in Australia, South Africa or Sri Lanka. Now only South Africa is left; India plays three Tests in December.
We often deliver greatness only in retrospect; The players of tomorrow grow up, their reputation grows as they move forward in history. It is one of cricket’s conceits that numbers don’t matter, that a well-made 37 is more than a brilliant century, whatever its impact on the game.
But even fathers who tell their sons that the players of their generation were great, when they were actually playing, were unwilling to admit it.
true greatness a fantasy
Maybe it’s because true greatness is a fantasy in the mind, not a reality on television. Over time you ‘remember’ things that never happened; Stories are achieved through repetition and myth-making. False memory makes us game heroes more than we care to admit.
In future, we can see this team led by Kohli as India’s greatest team. We are just saving time here by saying this in advance.
.