- The recently concluded five-match Test series between India and England didn’t throw up much surprise save for the first match in favor of the visiting team. True cricket connoisseurs and experts alike had opined at the beginning of the much-anticipated series that the contest would be fought keenly. As you are aware, England with its all-out attacking approach had created quite a flutter around the cricketing world before embarking on the tough conditions prevalent in the Indian shores. Much was expected from the by-now-familiar Baseball approach introduced by the Coach-Captain combo of Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes in Test cricket. It had yielded the desired results before the English team embarked on their Indian sojourn.
PC: India Today
- However, the duo perhaps did not consider the prevalent conditions in the subcontinent where it’s extremely challenging for the visiting team to tame the home favourites. That’s exactly what happened after the first Test in Hyderabad. Team India showcased how resilient, and competitive, and bettered their skill sets by winning key moments during the subsequent Tests to run away with the series win with a margin of 4-1. Test cricket is all about winning those key moments session by session. Team India turned out to be far superior in executing the skill sets required to seize those moments quite consistently. Mind you, Team India was without some of the proven stalwarts like Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami. But that did not hamper them.
- Most heartwarmingly, the debuting youngsters like Sarfraz Khan, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal, and of course, the nascent star in the making Yashaswi Jaiswal were outstanding throughout the series. The only debutant who missed out was Rajat Patidar who could not make use of the opportunity handed over to him. He failed miserably in all the innings by not scoring a decent hit. On the other hand, Sarfraz Khan scored three half-centuries showing little nerves by taking on the famed opposition bowlers with great aplomb. Opener Yashaswi Jaiswal was a revelation of sorts scoring two back-to-back double-hundreds with an overall tally of 712 runs in 9 innings. There was no stopping these youngsters from displaying their admirable prowess.
PC: TOI
- No wonder, Jaiswal was crowned Man-of-the-Series for his astonishing effort. Ravichandran Ashwin proved yet again why he is considered the modern great by scalping 26 wickets. He also crossed the personal milestone of 100 Tests and topped the occasion with a five-fer in the second innings. A remarkable cricketer who has served Team India with absolute distinction. Kuldeep Yadav is a revelation with his added skills over the last year or so substantially strengthening his bowling. The resultant outcome is he not only bagged a handful of wickets but also was instrumental in setting up other bowlers to run through the opposition side. Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, apart from batting, was outstanding throughout. A well-deserved series win for Team India!
