Let This Epiphany Stay Unbeaten

Privileging competence, even stolidity, over flash and dazzle and multiple stabs over awesome blows, India wore Australia down in an un-Indian manner.

- Suresh Menon

THE ‘new’ India has been evolving for a while now, dropping some of the baggage of the old while appearing uncertain about the nuances of the transformation. One thing would vindicate the change in culture: a series win away, with the accent on solidity rather than mere flash, on efficiency rather than style, on a move away from strike rates or gasp-inducing spin to putting it all together in a package that ground the opposition down. It all came together in Australia.

If it meant winning in an un-Indian way, so be it. Spin bowling wasn’t the key. Nor was wristy, ooh-inspiring batsmanship. Virat Kohli’s men were professional, focused, and delivered the knockout with a series of short jabs rather than one mighty punch. For too long have Indian teams relied on the mighty punch that looked attractive but meant ignoring the short jabs. Neither Kohli nor coach Ravi Shastri is an old school romantic. If Indian teams in the past felt that it was important to win looking attractive and in command, the Shastri-Kohli duo felt it was simply important to win. Period.

Indian cricket is more used to opposition spinners winning a series in their backyard than their fast men winning abroad. When the feted spin quartet was at its peak in the 1960s and ’70s, and on pitches usually tailor-made for them, Windies’ Lance Gibbs (twice), Australia’s Ashley Mallett and England’s Derek Underwood claimed more wickets in home series than India’s best.

It has taken India this long not just to win a series in Australia, but to win it with fast bowling as the main weapon. To see the opposition’s Starc Cummins-Hazelwood hand and raise it with their own Bumrah-Shami-Ishant.