Editorial: Remains of the Day
Belying their wealth of experience and a slew of other enviable records, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli batted in a manner that would shame a novice.
Australia's Usman Khawaja bats during play on the third day of the fifth cricket test between India and Australia (AP)
The developments that transpired last Sunday in the cricketing arena offered India a reckoning with hard reality. The listless visitors were knocked out of the World Test Championship (WTC) final as Australia cruised to a six-wicket victory in the fifth Test to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after 10 years, leaving Team India with much to ponder upon in an arduous transition phase worsened by over-the-hill batting stars. Australia won the five-match series 3-1 and qualified for the WTC final against South Africa slated at the Lord's from June 11 to 15.
Ever since India won the ICC World T20 in June last year, ending more than a decade’s wait for an ICC trophy, the second half of the year has been calamitous, marred by a string of unforeseen disasters that kept coming at an alarming rate both at home and away. The horrid run started when a depleted New Zealand team, without its best batter Kane Williamson and opener Devon Conway, inflicted a 3-0 drubbing on India in a three-match Test series that effectively dashed the host's chances of qualifying for the prestigious World Test Championship summit clash after reaching the previous two finals.
What made that scoreline all the more humiliating was that barely two weeks earlier, the same New Zealand side that had Williamson in its ranks lost 2-0 to Sri Lanka. Not without good rationale, it was with a great degree of trepidation that Team India fans were praying for a remarkable turnaround on the tour of Australia that came close on the heels of the New Zealand debacle.
After a surreal start to the series where India won at Perth, the team soon lapsed into its familiarly erroneous ways, surrendering the Border Gavaskar Trophy with a 3-1 margin. Following the glorious high of Perth, it didn't take long for us to come crashing down with even off the field matters going haywire such as premier off-spinner R Ashwin announcing retirement from international cricket after the conclusion of Brisbane Test that no-one saw coming.
Belying their wealth of experience and a slew of other enviable records, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli batted in a manner that would shame a novice. It appeared as though both were vying to outdo the other with their mode of dismissals that became a running joke, engendering a flood of derisive remarks on various social media platforms, besides raising the collective eyebrows of a billion plus populace.
The lone Indian to have passed this 'test' with flying colours was Jasprit Bumrah whose 32 wickets deservingly fetched him the Player of the Series award. Being the ultimate team man that he is, how he would gladly swap that for the Border Gavaskar Trophy, which the rest of his team-mates handed over to the Aussies on a silver platter. What is of paramount importance to the likes of Bumrah and fans of the game is the performance of the beloved Team India in the field. Just ask Kapil Dev who cradled the Prudential World Cup at Lord's balcony in June 1983. It was India’s first World Cup, a title it deservedly won while operating on a shoestring budget.
The BCCI should take a cue from former pacer Irfan Pathan who called for an end to the superstar culture in the Indian team, and sought an ethos of improving oneself, and the team by extension.