“It was a one-off match.”
This was the sentence heard repeatedly in the aftermath of the Pune loss. Anyone, and everyone, associated with team India – and Indian cricket in general – went to great lengths to shrug off that embarrassing 333-run loss. And it was easy to agree with them. After all, how often does it happen that all batsmen fail in both innings in two days?
From the top-order collapse in St Lucia, to the second innings in Kolkata against New Zealand, to Ravindra Jadeja standing guard with Virat Kohli as India avoided defeat in Rajkot against England, and later to the lower order coming good in Mohali, and so on, there are umpteen examples of someone standing up each time this team was in trouble in 2016-’17.
Then, after 105 and 107 in Pune, the first innings in Bengaluru happened. India were shot out for 189. For the first time in 40 years, in three successive Test innings at home, India failed to score 200 runs. And at tea on day three here, there was a chance this record was going to be stretched. Placed at 122/4, not only the match, the entire series hung in balance.
The Indian team management, all of them, were right though. Indeed, it was a one-off game in Pune, as Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane belied the recent poor form and put on 93 unbeaten runs for the fifth wicket. As the duo walked off at stumps, the camera panned to the Indian dressing room. There were some smiles, but mostly relief.
Sense of imminent disaster
It was different when Pujara-Rahane had come together. First, there was the Kohli dismissal; a dubious call from on-field umpire Nigel Llong, yet backed up by technology, as the TV umpire couldn’t find any contradictory evidence. While the Indian captain was yet to cool down, the ploy of promoting Jadeja failed too. There was a sense of imminent disaster, all too familiar in this series by now.
“After the first innings, we got together as a batting group and revisited our approach,” said India’s assistant coach Sanjay Bangar after the day’s play. “We looked at how we had negotiated spin in the first three innings of this series. Then we looked at what they had been doing, and reinforced our thoughts. We came out with a solution for it.”
Never mind what happened in Pune, then. Just relook at the first essays of Pujara and Rahane here in Bengaluru, following a near-similar script: both batsmen receding into a shell, looking to play off the backfoot against spin, and getting cowed down into not scoring runs.
Pujara faced 66 balls in the first innings at a strike-rate of 25.75. Rahane faced 42 balls, and was only marginally better at 40.47. The fate of this partnership – and the Indian innings – depended on how these two batsmen used their feet against spin this second time.
Form is temporary
Let us start with Rahane, for the vice-captain has been under pressure off late. It is the short-memory-syndrome in Indian cricket, wherein achievements and runs are forgotten momentarily. Injury and poor form against England didn’t help matters, and his 188 against New Zealand was easily forgotten. His 82 against Bangladesh didn’t help either. Add to it, he has dropped a couple catches too; when confidence is low, everything can – and does – go against you.
But form is temporary, and Rahane does ooze class. It could be seen in the surety of his footwork against the spinners. There was a conscious effort to play on the front foot, without repeating his mistake from the first innings. Against Nathan Lyon, if he felt pressured into scoring runs, he brought out the sweep shot, and a single, or two, helped the situation.
Against Steve O’Keefe, he played inside the line of delivery. Sure, he was beaten a few times because this pitch does create chances. But that confidence was back flowing, seen as he planted his front foot forward and even shouldered arms to O’Keefe, confident he had covered both line/length and turn of the ball.
Perhaps it helped Rahane that he just needed to bat for time, without thinking about runs, for they eventually come as seen throughout this Test whenever a partnership builds up. Or, perhaps it helped more that Pujara rediscovered his swagger against spinners.
Playing the waiting game
Surely, after a rich run of form, it is acceptable that Kohli was overdue for a couple poor scores. As such, the surprising bit from India’s last three innings was Pujara’s repeated failures. This is a batsman who eats spin for breakfast, lunch and teatime snacks on wickets similar to Pune and Bengaluru all across the domestic cricket wilderness.
In the second innings in Pune, he played for turn like most Indian batsmen did and paid the price. In the first innings here, he waited and waited to score, returning to his approach during the West Indies tour, when he would hardly score. He wanted to outlast the bowlers, yet this is a pitch different from the ones in Antigua or Jamaica. Here, with some regularity, the ball will rear and kick up, inducing an edge or bringing the lbw into play.
As such, Steve Smith’s dropped catch – before he pulled off that blinder to dismiss KL Rahul – was a stroke of luck for India. And “you need luck on such wickets”, as Smith himself put it after stroking a fine hundred in Pune. This was Pujara’s slice of the fortune cookie, and he milked it well.
It was different from how he had played spinners earlier against New Zealand and England. Good footwork, again, was the watchword, on Monday as well as in those two series prior. But while he charged the spinners often, he couldn’t do so here, having seen the fates of Rahane and Karun Nair in the first innings. This is where running between the wickets became vital.
The change in approach was very visible in Pujara’s scoring pattern against the spinners. He went onto the front foot against Lyon, and scored with regularity in front of square on the leg side. Whatever little he faced against O’Keefe, he looked to get behind the line. In all he took 16 singles off Lyon, and another nine off O’Keefe, four doubles and ran a three for good measure as well.
After what seemed an eternity, the Indian batting line-up saw off a session without conceding any wickets. It enabled the hosts to get 126 runs in front of Australia. On a pitch that is surely going to get worse, does this put India ahead, even if marginally?
“I would say the match is still in balance,” said Bangar. “We need to come back tomorrow and bat another couple sessions. This has been a hard-fought Test so far. It could get even more exhilarating going ahead.” he added, setting the stage for an intriguing fourth day.