Beyond Test rankings

What makes this Indian team different from the ones we've seen in the past is this: When pushed against the wall, they almost always find means to respond

It is perhaps worth wondering when the India-England series went from being an ultra-competitive duel to a lopsided massacre. Was it in the second game when Rohit Sharma finally saw the point in curbing his natural instinct and masterfully negating a mischievous Chennai pitch? Or was it that time when Axar Patel decided that he was going to make Test cricket look like taking a walk in one’s back garden? Or was it when Rishabh Pant chose to reverse-sweep the greatest fast bowler of this era for four? 

Maybe all these moments played their part — bouts of rarefied brilliance that put an end to the resistance offered by the jumbled minds and tormented techniques of the English visitors. In the end, watching them trying to counter Indian spin was a bit like witnessing pro-democracy activists attempting to succeed in North Korea. They were powerless, and they knew it.

But if you were to be brutally honest, this turned out to be much better than England would have originally hoped. Not many touring sides come to India and play like England did in the first Test, taking advantage of a good batting wicket before making the Indian batsmen look fairly unremarkable in conditions where they pride themselves on being the very best. The win in Chennai will forever be a bright star on Joe Root’s CV, an incomparable triumph that should have, ideally at least, been a great starting point for a stirring series win. 

That’s the thing: Unlike runaway wins of the past, India were made to feel uncomfortable by England. Partly why qualification for the World Test Championship (WTC) final — once a formality — seemed to be hanging by a thread after the opening Test. All of that, however, wasn’t exactly caused by what India had done on the field.

Top of the tree in November, India slipped to second — and later third — almost overnight in the run-up to their tour of Australia. The reason was a rule change: Because of the cancellation of certain tours due to the pandemic, the International Cricket Council (ICC) amended the qualification criteria to percentage of points contested as opposed to absolute points won. Precisely why you had Ravi Shastri coming out this week and bemoaning the ICC’s “shifting of goal posts” and claiming that his team had to “dig deep to find water”.

But that’s exactly what makes this Indian team different from the ones we’ve seen in the past: When pushed against the wall, they almost always find means to respond. It may seem like a long time ago now, but it’s worth remembering England had India in a bit of tangle in both the Ahmedabad Tests. In the now infamous game that lasted two days, England once again surprised India by restricting them to the slimmest of first innings leads before Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin made it a no-contest in the second. In the last match, England again looked in firm control, until Pant and Washington Sundar managed to find an extra gear and put the game beyond doubt.  

There’s an argument to be made here that England blew their chances, but there’s also a stronger one that suggests that at no point, in any game, in any part of the world, are these Indian players to be taken lightly. It is a characteristic of the truly exceptional sides to turn desperate situations into moments of dazzling genius, a kind of sporting reflex that has the potential to flatten and astonish the opposition at the same time. Moreover, they are able to make the gruelling look routine — something that India did so handsomely in this series.

India has been able to do so because they have treated Test cricket as a clear priority. They’ve picked the best players available, rested the important ones ahead of key series, and made sure that the younger lot — unlike in some other countries — is keen to play the game’s longest format. It perhaps helps that Virat Kohli, arguably the biggest star in the sport today, takes Test cricket so seriously, often emphasising on how much it means to him. 

The WTC wasn’t exactly designed to discover the best team in Test cricket. It was seen as a way to ensure a more equitable distribution of Test matches — the ICC’s endeavour to give more games to teams outside the “Big Three” of India, Australia and England. But along the way, it’s been difficult to refute India’s claim of being the preeminent Test side in the world. Despite finishing on top in the end, what the rankings probably don’t tell us is the mental make-up of this Indian team. They managed to win in Australia in spite of a massive injury list; against England, they kept bouncing back after being repeatedly forced into a corner. And that’s why no matter what happens against New Zealand in June, India’s status as the greatest Test side of the last few years may already be set.