Postscript: Gill Goes Large, Akash Dukes Deep

Notes from Edgbaston

Some cricketers are average, some are good, a handful are excellent, the greats are made of rare flesh. And then there is the even rarer breed, the Jasprit Bumrahs of the world. They are so insanely gifted, so influential, that they become the central nervous system for their team. Before this Test at Edgbaston, India had won just the one Test out of their last nine, and that came, largely, if not exclusively, thanks to Jasprit Bumrah. He has crossed into that territory where watching him bowl induces a curious vertigo: part awe at the artistry, part terror at the prospect of his absence.

So there was obviously the Bumrah question whirling around Gambhir and Gill. We had known from before the tour that Bumrah would only be available for three Tests in the series. That’s all the load his back could endure. Given the series deficit and the toothless last day at Headingley, how do you play this situation? Take the six day gap between the first two Tests as a blessing, and play him at Edgbaston? Or do you rest him here, pray for a miracle, and then hope to play him in two of the last three?

Outside this, the loudest conversation was around the bowling attack. At Headingley, admittedly on a batter-friendly track, India had lacked the firepower to get twenty wickets. On the final day, England’s batters did not even have to play in fifth gear. They cruised on drive-mode, Bumrah had an average day, and there just wasn’t enough edge elsewhere. It’s been hot in England, Edgbaston famously gets drier by the day, so surely, you have to play Kuldeep Yadav to add some wicket-taking bite?

There was a lot of interest in finding out the routes Gambhir and Gill take. In the post-Rohit, Dravid, Kohli world, these would be the first signs of the colours the next iteration of the Indian team will be dyed in.

Assorted Ingredients

Their response couldn’t have been clearer if they’d spray-painted it on the pavilion walls: stuff the batting. The twin collapses in the first Test stung too much. No Bumrah, no Kuldeep, more all-rounders.

Thoughts were beamed, tweets were tweeted, and outrage was broadcasted in capital letters. Good time to say, rightfully so. Bumrah’s pause was understandable, but Kuldeep had to play. No team scores 800+ runs in a Test, five centuries included, and thinks, “You know what? We need moar runs.”

At Edgbaston, Ben Stokes won the toss and did what Ben Stokes does: elect to chase. He doesn’t put someone into bat, this Stokes, he chases. It is his way of placing himself and the team in complete control of the game half an hour before the start of play on the first morning of a Test match. If Stokes was a professor in creative writing, he’d force his students to only use active voice.

Yashasvi Jaiswal started like a left-handed Sehwag, cutting and driving the England bowlers along the dark green Edgbaston grass. It’s too early in his career to say this, or maybe not, but he’ll probably end up winning India as many Tests as Sehwag did. Around him, Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse bowled expertly. They first disturbed KL Rahul’s outside-off zen with a lot of balls into the body. Eventually, he chopped one on. Karun Nair looked compact, but once again, made a costly mistake before the scorecard could smile at him. I wonder how many more 10s and 20s he’ll get before someone speaks the uncomfortable truth about how small to medium samples are measured. The mean can be tilted by outliers, but the truth lies close to the median. After 10 Test innings in his career, across conditions and situations, Karun Nair had crossed 31 once.

Shubman Gill, Test Batter

Enter Shubman Gill. New captain, still adjusting to the blazer, but slipping smoothly onto the MRF bat and new batting position. In a quite telling admission after the first Test, while others dissected dropped catches and toothless bowling, Gill had fixated on his dismissal at 147. He felt there were at least 50 more runs he could’ve, should’ve, plundered.

At Edgbaston, he raised that by some magnitude. He went past 147, past 150, 175, past 200, past the halo-ed figure of 221, past 250, and finished at 269. No Indian captain had ever scored more in a Test innings. And yet, for such a gigantic knock, it will be remembered less for the volume and more for the temperament. Even accounting for the easy batting conditions or the oft-soft Duke’s ball, Gill did not release a bead of sweat. It was like watching someone meditate while palming away 90 mph missiles. He exuded such serenity that it was impossible to tell that he was made captain just three weeks back, and he was fighting for his spot three Tests back.

587 is a lot of runs. But it is a lot of runs in normal Test matches. Not long back, Pakistan had scored in excess of 550 batting first and lost the game by an innings to this team. So, respectfully, this is Test cricket adapted to a different genre. No number is comfortable against them.

In late-February last year, Akash Deep had made his debut against England. Three wickets, yes, but more tellingly, an almost Shami-like magnetism for the stumps. At Edgbaston, he picked up where he’d left off. The ball stayed within the corridor, occasionally darting away. Cue: Duckett and Pope caught in the slips.

Siraj coaxed Zak Crawley into a loose shot - not the hardest task if you’ve watched Crawley’s career arc - but the wicket was well-earned. Root snicked to the leg-side and England were suddenly 84-5. Still 500 behind, all but Harry Brook from their top order gone. Gill and Gambhir had to be smelling blood.

Blood was spilt, all right. Just not the kind they’d imagined.

Bazball Exhibit 453

Brook and Jamie Smith, who looks more impressive every time he bats, tore into India, scoring 300 in 60 overs. Let me break down the math for you: that’s five an over, for two full sessions, against a well-rested attack, when your team’s trailing by 500. File this under ‘Exhibits for the Bazball Museum.’

When Brook finally got out for a sparkling, typically-effortless 158, the rest of the England batting fell like bowling pins. It made for a bizarre scorecard: six ducks, another single-digit score, a 19 and a 22, and two scores in excess of 150. Like someone pointed out here, the median and mode score this England innings was 0.

India came out to bat with a tall lead as their tailwind. Both Rahul and Jaiswal pinged a flurry of boundaries in the early overs, taking the lead into the 200s and easing any early nerves. Jaiswal fell, then Nair fell for another start and premature end. Enter Gill again, looking as fluid and fresh as he had in the first innings. The pitch remained friendly, sure, but it wasn’t supposed to be this straightforward.

Declaration of Intent

But India batted without the kind of urgency or intent that would suggest an early declaration. The tempo was consistent with their overarching strategy of batting England out of the game. So they continued, sometimes briskly, sometimes as if they were practicing for the next game at Lord’s. Gill scored yet another century, raised it to 161, becoming the first batter to score a 250 and a 150 in the same Test. He scored 430 runs in this match alone. We would’ve happily signed up for those many in the series. Only Graham Gooch has scored more runs in a single Test.

India kept wrestling with the idea of what’s enough until they reached a lead of 600 and exhaled. They left themselves 100-120 overs, weather permitting. Again, good time to say - it was a needlessly-stretched innings. 500 is enough, and one should ideally have enough confidence in their bowling attack to not concede those many in the final innings of a Test. If your opponents are scoring 500 - five hundred! - in the last innings, shake their hands and get a new bowling attack.

In the last three years, the England men’s team have grown a deep love for the microphone. They talk a big game, place vibes over victory, and are keen to tell you that Viv Richards actually learnt batting from Zak Crawley. Time travel is real, and Ben Stokes has won a Nobel Prize for it. On many occasions, they have suggested that no target is tall enough for them. Not even 600. The insane thing is that they say all this unironically.

So, were they going to chase 600? Crawley, Duckett, and Root went late on day four. Akash Deep targetted the stumps, cleaning up both Duckett and Root, but the ball to Root will make it to the year-end highlights package of global cricket, nevermind this game or India or England. You don’t just turn Joe Root into a 7, and knock his stumps back.

Career highlight. Credit: MoneyControl.

Were they going to chase 600? Surely not, right?

Rain showed up, reducing the number of overs India had to take the remaining seven wickets in, and England to safely get home chase 600.

Pope went to another Akash Deep in-dipper, Brook went to a vicious Akash Deep in-dipper, and England were 83-5. Were they still going to chase? Jamie Smith, again looking so, so impressive, batted like they’d give it a go. Captain Ben Stokes was more watchful, but kept playing his shots here and there.

Stokes went just before lunch.

Bazball Exhibit 454

India set a leg-side dominant field, telegraphing their intention to bowl bouncers, and asked Chris Woakes if he’d hit or leave. Woakes hit, and spooned a catch. A couple of overs later, they asked the same question to Jamie Smith. He hit two sumptuous boundaries and then perished to the trap.

The skies had turned grey when Shoaib Bashir came out to bat. Sure, one wicket left and all that, but you can only trust Birmingham weather so much. It could’ve poured, and if it did for long enough, there was a chance England still escaped.

Instead of playing for time, Bashir and Carse went for heaves. Carse connected and Bashir looked comical for the most part, evoking laughter from the dressing room whenever he got bat on ball. There’s another entry into the Bazball library: even with survival possible, they’d rather attempt handstands on a tightrope because it’s cool and gets people talking in hyperbole. On the previous afternoon, batting coach Marcus Trescothick had spoken about searching for smart options when the time comes to play for a draw. His opinion clearly doesn’t have too many takers.

Carse was the last one out, playing another heave, caught by Gill, bowled by Akash Deep - a poetic end to the game, an exceptional first W for Shubman Gill as captain. No Asian team had ever won a Test match at Edgbaston before. Gill’s team, for all the decisions that we can and should debate, played with clarity and executed well, really well.

Lord’s beckons, along with Bumrah. Ben Stokes and Baz McCullum are too smart to be making the same mistakes indefinitely. If Gill and Gambhir can iron some of theirs out, India have a chance at doing something utterly wild.