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Old Trafford, Manchester, has not been the happiest of venues for the Indian cricket team in the past. They have never won a Test match there. So, when the Indian team arrived to play the fourth Test after narrowly losing the third at Lord’s, London, it was understandable that there was a sense of apprehension among Indian cricket lovers. The Manchester weather is often wet and cold, which doesn’t suit the Indian players. Luckily, though, there was hardly any interruption across the five days of the match. The remarkable fightback shown by the Indians after conceding a mammoth lead of 311 to England speaks volumes about the team’s determination and character, and now gives them a chance to level the series at The Oval in London.
Towards the end of the Test, a few grumpy English players were unhappy that the batters at the crease, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, declined the offer to end the day’s play when England captain Ben Stokes proposed it at the start of the final hour. Instead, they opted to bat on and complete their hundreds. The England players felt that, since there was no chance of a result, the Indians should have accepted the offer to conclude proceedings. They seemed to forget that two teams are playing out there, and if one decides to continue, the other simply has to accept it. They made sarcastic remarks about the batters, who were in their 80s, getting to their centuries off the bowling of a batter. What they overlooked was the hard work and resilience the batters had shown against frontline bowlers for over four hours to reach the 80s. If they wanted a hundred for their efforts, England should have denied them with proper bowlers rather than whining about them getting there against Harry Brook. A Test century isn’t easy and doesn’t come every match, so the batters were fully entitled to bat on and reach their personal landmarks — which they eventually did. If I were the captain, I’d have told them to keep batting and play out the remaining overs, tiring out the fielders even more — especially after the shenanigans by the English players once their offer was declined.
There’s only a three-day break before the next Test. If England didn’t want two more centuries recorded against them, they could have brought the quicks back on. The natural light was deteriorating, and the floodlights were on. Had Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse been given the ball, the umpires might have intervened and stopped play — so perhaps England missed a trick there.
At one of the media conferences after the defeat in the second Test in Birmingham, some England players, trying to be funny, asked why India set them a target of over 600. They even went so far as to say that India were scared they’d chase anything above 450. The fact is, when they were on a high from scoring piles of runs on flat tracks and fast outfields in Pakistan, they even boasted ahead of the India tour last year that they could chase down 600. Well, talk is cheap, and when given the chance to put their money where their mouth is by chasing over 600 in Birmingham, they ended up losing by 336 runs. Yes, they didn’t even get to 300 while boasting of chasing over 600.
Shubman Gill is a young skipper and a fine gentleman, so after the draw in Manchester, he didn’t ask why England batted on to score over 600 and take a lead of 311. Were they afraid that if the lead was just 250, India might score 500 and then bowl England out for less in the fourth innings? By batting on even after Stokes got his century, England perhaps didn’t leave their bowlers enough time to bowl India out and win the match and with it, the series. Everything cannot be done according to what the England team wants. This is yet another example of that old syndrome: when we do it, it’s right; when the opposition does the same, it’s wrong.
Those days are long gone, and no one, least of all the Indian team, is going to simply accept it.
These little irritants aside, it has been a terrific series, and the cricket from both sides has been riveting. The fifth and final Test at The Oval will hopefully deliver another thriller to round off what has been one of the finest Test series, a pleasure and privilege to watch.
