India completed an emphatic Test series win over England yesterday but amid the ensuing chest-thumping and prolonged euphoria that will follow it is easy to lose sight of the fact that there was hardly any surprise in Virat Kohli’s team’s achievement – they were expected to do just that.
It is no secret that very few touring sides have managed to steal the thunder from India on Indian soil over the past seven decades or so. With pitches that are tailor-made to suit spinners and at the same time take the sting out of visiting fast bowlers, India has been for long seen as the ‘Last Frontier’ for many a self-respecting captain.
In the ongoing series India are 3-0 up after the fourth Test match which concluded in Mumbai yesterday with the hosts posting victory by an innings and 36 runs. The architect of the victory was none other than off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who claimed 12 wickets – six in each innings – to assert his credentials as the best spinner in the world.
Captain Virat Kohli, of course, is having a dream run with the bat and his double century in the match at the Wankhede Stadium laid the foundation for the win, which will further cement India’s status as the world’s top-ranked Test side.
The success over England came a few weeks after India swept aside New Zealand 3-0, with Ashwin and fellow spinner Ravindra Jadeja running amok and the pace bowlers chipping in with a few wickets here and there.
With Bangladesh set to tour India for a single Test and Australia to follow later for a five-match series, India will be aiming to wrap up perhaps their most successful home season in history, setting many individual landmarks along the way.
But the million dollar question is what happens next. When India visit South Africa, Australia, New Zealand or England in the future, the home wins will be a thing of the past as vastly different conditions confront them.
Even when players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman were still active, India have struggled to cope with the fast, seaming tracks abroad.
In 2011, for example, England made a clean sweep of the four-Test series despite Dravid notching up three centuries on the tour. Even the great Tendulkar came a cropper on the tour.
The tour of Australia later in 2011-12 ended in similar humiliation with the Aussies winning the four-Test series 4-0 with the Indian big guns failing to come good yet again.
After that, India have lost series in New Zealand, South Africa and England again, thereby cementing their dubious reputation as poor tourists.
The current team have now won five straight series under Kohli and are unbeaten in 17 Tests, which equals their best-ever run which was set back in 1987.
“We are running out of words to describe his performances,” said the Indian skipper of Ashwin.
“Where we stand today – 50 to 60% of that is Ashwin’s effort... The batsmen are playing second fiddle to that.”
The skipper is right in his assessment but the fact remains that only a team that wins in all conditions can claim to be truly great one.
Only a team that wins in all conditions can claim to be truly great one
Viewpoint
