It was the emphatic manner of the win that was most impressive. Team India are up against this challenge of winning every Test in the Caribbean lest they be charged with incompetence considering the unbalanced nature of the contests. The spectacular way in which the team achieved a quarter of their objective engenders the hope they may carry out the assignment against the “Collapso Calypso” teams of today. The comprehensive nature of the triumph was made clear in the variety of contributors making it possible in a grand team effort which brought team India their biggest ever Test win outside Asia.
The early batsmen dug in on a pitch with a teeny-weeny bit of life in it and setting it up for Virat Kohli who batted like a supremely confident batsman 8 to 10 years too young for the kind of composure he showed at the crease. Ravichadran Ashwin revelled in his promotion up the order and made mincemeat of his favourite opposition with his third Test century off them. The seam bowlers then made the ball move around sharply off the pitch, bowling an ideal length rather than the assumed West Indian length they have been known to operate to.
It is not premature to say Ashwin is the all-rounder who can lend the team a greater balance as the very positive skipper Kohli pursues his aggressive strategy of including five bowlers in his XI in overseas territory. His early days as an opening batsman in Chennai cricket may have instilled in him the virtues of playing straight and from there it was a matter of putting mind over matter for an intelligent engineer-cricketer. He is already in the Ian Botham league of having made two centuries in Tests in which he also has a five-for.
Of course, Botham has done such a century and five-for double five times and Ashwin would have to repeat his success against teams other than the West Indies to prove an innate ability to be a prolific batsman besides being capable of delivering wickets consistently abroad as an off spinner. Given the success of the seamers in the first innings, Ashwin could not have expected to play a big role then. But, as a bowler worth his salt, he proved himself capable in the later innings when the spinners come far more into play.
The bowling balance with the quicker bowlers striking was a great feature of a win abroad. With Shami finding the right length to hit, Umesh Yadav may have adjusted his radar too. Often a culprit in pitching it far too short for an Indian quick, Umesh bowled most sensibly to take as many wickets as his peer as they choked the West Indians. This is a matter of pride because so often the Caribbean quicks used to do the hatchet job on Indian batting line-ups in the same conditions while their batsmen scored enough against the Indian medium pacers.
The relentless way in which Kohli gathered his runs indicated a batting maturity far beyond his years even if he is considerably experienced now in his craft and his international career. Kohli reminds me of an older Sachin Tendulkar who knew precisely how to go about making runs with the minimum of fuss and the most economic spending of physical and nervous energy. There is a majestic calm about senior batsmen accumulating runs as opposed to young blood bashing the bowlers around. One must fear for the world’s bowlers if Kohli is capable of batting to such a rhythm at the age of 27.
It was no surprise to read that he is the first Indian Test captain to a double century. The job somehow seemed to weigh so much on our great captain-batsmen that none had managed it till now. Here again Kohli has beaten a mental barrier. With the odd ball taking off it was not the simplest of tasks as India were in long before the wicket eased at the Viv Richards Stadium. They tried drawing him into playing well beyond his off stump, which is about the only Achilles Heel one can see in his batting these days and they almost succeeded.
Holder, for a bowling captain, did not have that extra slip in when Carlos ‘jackal’ Brathwaite was bowling at gentler pace and offering the tempting drivable length with movement enough to make the stroke dangerous. Thanks to that bit of lack of aggression on the part of the West Indian captain we saw history being made in Antigua. With a double century as captain, Kohli sends out an even clearer message. He is putting his hand up even higher as the one who will lead from the front. Team India are badly in need of a skipper like this to hit the heights again in all formats.
