Kohli is right that the England series was more hard-fought than the scoreline suggests, but he’s wrong in believing it wasn’t in the hands of Team India.
Indians of a certain vintage will remember a time not so long ago when sport was not broadcast live on two dozen television channels 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Back then, if you wanted to actually watch sport, you waited for the weekend, and a one-hour programme called The World of Sports, packed with clips from exotic locations, was presented by a kindly old gent by the name of Narottam Puri. The script of the show rarely changed: Records were set, trails were blazed, India competed, but, sadly, did not win. Week after week Puri would end the show on an identical note: It is not about winning or losing, the important thing is to participate.
When Puri trotted out that line, which became something of a signature, it was not always entirely clear whether he was consoling himself, the millions of viewers who had tuned in with high hopes only to have them dashed once more, or the players who had come up short once more.
Watching India play this Test series in England was a similar exercise. The optimist will say India should have won this series, the realist will say India could have won this series and cynic will say India might have won this series.
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England’s openers have failed to fire, their slip-catching has been dire, their lead spinner has taken only seven wickets from four Tests, the captain has slipped from No. 3 to No. 4, their best allrounder has split time between cricket field and trial court … This is England in as much disarray as you might expect in a home series, and yet they lead 3-1 with one Test to play.
Virat Kohli is right when he insists that this series has been more hard-fought than the scoreline suggests. He is correct when he says that India have not been dominated and that each day’s play, each session — save for the Lord’s drubbing — has been see-saw and hard fought. Kohli is spot on when he says things could have been so different if only a few cards fell differently.
Where he is wrong, however, is in believing that this was not in the hands of the Indian team. It was India’s choice, not a stroke of ill-fate, not to play Cheteshwar Pujara early on in the tour. It was India’s choice to leave Ravindra Jadeja on the bench in Southampton, leaving R. Ashwin with a mountain to climb alone, on a pitch that Kohli assessed, before the game, to be the kind that would get very rough in the latter stages, even as England played two spinners.
Moeen Ali gets a bad rap as a part-time offie, but 9 for 144 against the players who rate themselves the best against spin in the world, is no joke. The combination of landing the ball in the rough consistently, putting enough action on the Dukes ball to get the most out of natural variations and keeping the speed of delivery just right, is a genuine skill. Ashwin will be the first to admit he was out-bowled in this match by a spinner with far less natural ability, and while that admission is welcome, it does not win series or matches.
The softening of tone from the Indian camp in the aftermath of the loss in Southampton is particularly interesting. Where the central leadership — captain and coach leading the way — had been belligerent to the point of being bombastic on previous occasions, there was a touch of magic realism almost to Kohli’s words after 1-3.
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Till Sunday, 2 September, you would have heard the coach say India were not in England to draw matches; that they were not aware of any backlash or criticism because they pay no attention to such things; that this team was unbeatable at home but it wanted to establish itself as the best travelling side. Sample some of what Kohli had to say after the loss:
“There are a lot of what-ifs and a couple of calls that could have gone our way. There are many factors that you can think of but I don’t think there are many negatives for us in this game.”
One would think losing the game, and with it the series 1-3 was a bit of a negative.
“It’s very difficult to recognise key moments in the first innings of a Test match but they later turn out to be very significant. We could’ve extended our lead in the first innings a bit more, but, apart from that, as a captain, I can’t think of too many areas as negatives.”
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Of course it’s difficult, which is precisely why Indian teams that have travelled to England in the past have struggled to win. But there’s no need to be arrogant in advance, blustery in victory only to be ultimately proven to be no better than those who went before you.
“To make home teams earn victories against us, that is a huge boost for us. Whether people want to look at it like that is something we can’t control. As a group we feel like we have forced the home side to earn victories and we haven’t thrown in the towel.”
If you’re going to throw in the towel when playing Test cricket for India, there are hundreds of thousands who would happily take your place, even if they were not half as good, who will certainly not throw in the towel. Not giving up is something to be proud of as an elite sportsperson? Isn’t that sort of a basic requirement?
When you hear Kohli say that his team was boosted by the fact that they made the opposition earn their victory, you look around the room to see if Puri is back. Remember that bit about winning and losing not being important while participation is the key?
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Kohli says that the scoreboard does not always reveal how close a contest was, and he is absolutely spot on. But the scoreboard does capture results very accurately. Here are India’s chases this year: Cape Town, target 208, India 135 all out; Centurion, target 287, India 151 all out; Edgbaston, target 194, India 162 all out; Southampton, target 245, India 184 all out.
With most sincere apologies to Dr Puri, it is indeed nice to participate, and good to make the opposition compete, but what’s great is actually winning when it matters.
For the final word, over to India’s captain.
“We can look at the scoreboard and say we were only 30 runs away or 50 runs away. We have played good cricket but we cannot say again and again to ourselves that we have competed. When you come so close, there is an art of crossing the line as well, which we will have to learn.”
A nation waits in earnest for this learning and the bounty that should logically follow.