SN Misra
After the drubbing in the Adelaide Test (36 all out), Virat Kohli’s departure back home and Mohammed Shami’s injury, stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane could not have bargained for a bumpier ride than when India took guard in the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). India’s record at the MCG has not been uplifting, with three wins out of 11 Tests played. However, India had a glorious win in Melbourne in 1981 when the mighty Australian team was all out for 83 when asked to score 121 for victory. The architect of that win was Kapil Dev who despite a debilitating hamstring injury scalped five crucial Aussie wickets for only 21 runs. The Melbourne match is also remembered for an unsavoury behaviour of Sunil Gavaskar when he threatened to walk out with Chetan Chauhan, when adjudged LBW against Dennis Lilee.
Ajinkya Rahane has been having an uncertain time in the Indian team. His role in the run out of Virat Kohli in the first Test must have rankled him no end when he took the field for the second Test. However, Rahane has a rare distinction of winning a Test match in 2017 against the Australians by making innovative changes and bringing the deadly spinning combo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal to the fore. The Indian pacers and Ravichandran Ashwin showed rare spunk in skittling out the Australians for 195.
This time around, they had to contend with the blistering pace and inswingers of Mitchell Starc and the guile of Pat Cummins ably supplemented by the wily spinner Nathan Lyon. Josh Hazlewood was also a very tough customer to handle. Happily, Shubman Gill, the debutant, played a courageous innings. While the star of the Indian team in 2018 Cheteshwar Pujara floundered, Rahane played the innings of his life with delectable drives, square drives and pull shots which were reminiscent of Rahul Dravid, the wall of India, in 2003, when India won a match in Australia after 22 years.
In the second innings when India started, two wickets of Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara fell, bringing memories of 36 & 42. However, the arm chair commentators had not bargained for Shubman Gill’s exceptional skills and Ajinkya Rahane’s firm resolve to get India past the winning post. When Rahane was asked to comment about the turnaround of the Indian team, he flagged the importance of character in cricket. He was indeed echoing what Rahul Dravid said in the Bradman memorial lecture in 2011. The first Indian to speak in the memorial lecture of the greatest batsman, Dravid reflected his character and sculpted each observation with care and precisions like his immaculate strokes in the cricket field.
India started its journey of cricket in Australia in 1947 when Lala Amarnath led the team. Lala had famously said that “we have come not to win but to learn cricket.” True to his apprehension the Indian team were bundled out in the first Test at Brisbane for 58 and 93 against the lightening pace of Ray Lindwall and swing of Keith Miller. Donald Bradman’s 185 in that match was enough to swamp India’s batting in both innings. However, Indian team of 1947 would be remembered for the heroic centuries scored by Vijay Hazare in both innings in Adelaide (116 & 145), though in a losing cause. Miller wrote: “Hazare was a cricketing giant by any standards.”
Cricket has always been a batsmen’s paradise. The popular icons of cricket are batsmen like Bradman and Viv Richards. In the Indian context Gavaskar, Tendulkar and presently Virat Kohli have that star status. However, the quite musketeers of Indian cricket have contributed handsomely to the success of India against the heaviest of odds. Mention must be made of Gundappa Viswanath’s century against West Indies in Kolkata and 98 not out in Chennai in 1975. The greatest innings of an Indian in an impossible situation against Australia was played by VVS Laxman (2001), who along with Rahul Dravid pulled off an exceptional win. Hazare planted the seed of respect in 1947 in Australia, Kapil Dev made it a sapling in 1981 and Dravid helped it bloom in 2003. Rahane is the new pied piper on Melbourne soil.
The writer is a cricketing buff. Views are personal.