In a delightful draw, a show of India's defiance

The Hindu

a day ago

The fifth day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford began with Ben Stokes and Liam Dawson, perhaps England's two most likely bowlers to make breakthroughs on a worn surface devoid of pace, operating in harness in the endeavour to prise out the remaining eight Indian wickets for a win that would have sealed the series with a game to spare.
It ended with part-timers Harry Brook and Joe Root sending down an assortment of freebies, six Indian wickets still intact, to Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar in the hope that they promptly get to their hundreds and settle for a draw before the scheduled close.
If there is such a thing as a moral victory at the end of a drawn affair, this was certainly it for India. For much of the five days, it had been a distinct second as England amassed a colossal total of 669 in response to India's 358. And yet, by mounting 425 for four in its second innings and consuming as many as 143 overs, Shubman Gill and company go into the fifth and final Test at The Oval in London with a chance to level the series at 2-2.
The final stages of the proceedings, although slightly farcical with Brook lobbing up full tosses and half-trackers, would have delighted India all the more. It seemed to reveal, besides excessive self-righteous posturing from England's players, the petulance and frustration of the home side at the turn of events. At the start of the final hour of day five, in which a mandatory 15 overs are required to be bowled, the convention is that the two teams have the option of shaking hands and agreeing on a stalemate if no other result is thought to be possible.
But while Stokes was resigned to this reality at that stage and went up to the two batters with that offer after 138 overs of fruitless toil on the field, Jadeja and Washington, on 89 and 80 respectively, were well within their rights to continue batting for a bit longer in pursuit of individual milestones as reward for their hard grind. For Stokes' men to moan about it and pass snide remarks at the batters was frankly out of line.
That Jadeja and Washington went on to reach the three-figure mark was the cherry on top that India had fully deserved. To escape with a draw seemed a distant dream at the start of its second innings when it was staring at a deficit of 311 runs with more than five sessions left in the game. To exacerbate matters, Yashasvi Jaiswal and B. Sai Sudharsan were dismissed off successive deliveries in the very first over to reduce India to none for two. Not to forget that Rishabh Pant had a fractured foot that severely curtailed his involvement.
But what followed was a marvellous manifestation of skill, defiance and discipline from first K.L. Rahul and Gill in a stand of 188 runs and then Jadeja and Washington in an unconquered 203-run alliance. Even by the standards that the Indian batters have set in this series, scoring more than 350 in the first innings of every Test so far, this was well beyond expectations. Unlike England's only other draw in the Bazball era when rain bailed out Australia at this very venue in 2023, no divine interventions were to come to India's rescue.
Although draws are supposedly detested by Stokes and his teammates, the value of denying the opponent a win in a Test it has dominated can be enormous in a long series such as this.
Sydney epic
Cast your mind back to India's spirited show of survival against Australia in the third Test in Sydney in January 2021. With the Aussies having made all the running to set an improbable fourth-innings target of 407, India had its back to the wall at 272 for five with more than 40 overs to negotiate for a draw. Worse still, Hanuma Vihari was hampered by a hamstring injury and R. Ashwin by a bad back for much of their innings. But both dug deep all the same and kept out a first-rate Australian attack for precisely 42.4 overs with pluck and perseverance. The feeling then, as it is now, was that India had inflicted a psychological blow on the adversary as a result, and it may have spilled over to the Gabba in the next Test where the visitors pulled off a sensational heist to clinch a storied series win.
India coach Gautam Gambhir, whose grit and tenacity as a player were defining characteristics, was understandably pleased with the marathon effort in Manchester.
'The way a lot of people had written us off in this Test, this is the foundation of the team. These are characters who are sitting in this dressing room and willing to fight for the country,' Gambhir said to the media in the post-match formalities on Sunday. 'They are going to learn a lot from what they did today. Because being under pressure and batting five sessions is never easy against an attack like England's. Coming out with a draw while losing only four wickets, you have to give it to the guys.'
Gambhir certainly knows a thing or two about salvaging draws from dire situations. At McLean Park in Napier in 2009, India was trailing New Zealand by 314 runs when it was asked to follow on with more than two days left. In response came arguably Gambhir's greatest Test knock, churning out 137 off 436 balls after a mammoth 10 hours at the crease, as India racked up 476 for four in 180 overs.
Incidentally, England's head coach Brendon McCullum and assistant coach Jeetan Patel were in the opposition then as well.
The 43-year-old was reminded of his knock in the aftermath of this result, but his response was along expected lines. 'I don't remember any knock of mine. That is all in the past. Honestly, nobody in this team is following or wants to follow anyone else. They want to make their own history,' he stated grimly.
Learn the right lessons
As uplifting as this performance promises to be for India's morale going into the next Test starting Thursday, Gambhir and his coaching staff need to take lessons from the first three days of this game rather than the last two. Which is that the bowling unit fundamentally lacked the firepower to take 20 English wickets, and ended up putting India in a position where a draw was the only satisfactory outcome. Runs were leaked at 4.25 per over, and Gill seemed to lack confidence in the services of Anshul Kamboj and Shardul Thakur to give them more than a collective load of 29 overs out of a total of 157.1 overs.
Much will invariably ride on Jasprit Bumrah's availability. Although he has played in three of the four Tests that he had committed to before the series owing to workload management, India hasn't yet ruled out the pace spearhead with the series on the line.
'All the fast bowlers are fit,' Gambhir said. 'There are no injury concerns. No decision has been made on whether Bumrah will play or not. Ultimately, whoever plays, they will try and do the job for the country.'
Irrespective of Bumrah's status, India must consider going against its recent propensity of prioritising batting depth over bowlers with wicket-taking ability. Particularly glaring over the last four Tests has been the omission of left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav. The 30-year-old, in his 13 Test appearances, has shown a knack for taking wickets with his guile and deception even on batting-friendly pitches, but has repeatedly missed out because he can't necessarily contribute lower-order runs.
With the surface at The Oval likely to be just as placid as the others through this series, Kuldeep ought to be considered instead of Shardul. It will mean three spinners in the playing XI, but Jadeja and Washington's bowling in this next Test should be secondary to their role with the willow in the top-seven.
Because for all the defiance that India's batters showed in the past couple of days, another moral victory will serve no purpose. India needs an actual win at The Oval.