The Headingley Takeaway

THE INDIAN TEAM that is currently here in England is a relatively inexperienced one. It has a very young captain at the helm and the deputy is also new. The pace bowlers, except Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, are also relatively inexperienced and two of the batters, Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair, have never played in this country before. In fact, the discourse before the Leeds Test was that India will be blown away in three days and stood no chance. Leeds is an English fortress and the hosts had deliberately chosen the venue to make sure they easily went up 1-0. Nothing of the sort happened. India were there till the very end and could have won the game had they been a little more disciplined. Till the very last hour of play the contest was on and it was difficult to identify a winner.

On day one at Leeds, India ended with 359- 3 and many of us expected them to get to 550 and bat England out of the game. That’s where they faltered. The Indians under Shubman Gill created multiple opportuni­ties but failed to close out the game. Yet again in the second innings, they were 350-5 and should have got a lead of 425 from there on. They folded up for 360 and the lead was lim­ited to 371. Add the six dropped catches, and you know that India did have their chances. And that’s where I believe the fandom in India starts to go wrong. A deep dive makes it clear that there are a lot of positives from Leeds. The fan discourse, however, will all be neg­ative. They will continue to abuse Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be the constant refrain and it is as if these fans want the team to fail. The truth is neither Kohli nor Sharma could have made any difference with the bat than what was done by KL Rahul or Gill.

Take the case of Rishabh Pant. Each time I have backed Pant, I have been subjected to criticism. It is as if these fans want Pant to fail. They want him to get out cheaply so that they can take potshots at him. Some will men­tion Sanju Samson while others will bring in someone else into the discourse. The very same thing happens with Gill. Now that he is captain, the discourse is all about him failing. If that happens, it will be crystal clear that he is not as good as Kohli—this is exactly what these fans will want to project.

It is this toxic fandom that ails Indian cricket. These fans, or should we even call them so, turn up each time India falter and spew venom. The truth is in sport you will lose more times than you win. English fans did not go after their own team when they won the toss and let India get to 359-3. Neither did they have a go at Ben Stokes when Rishabh Pant scored a second innings hun­dred and had taken the lead past 300. In fact, when England was chasing, each run was be­ing cheered in Leeds. The crowd was backing their players and egging them on. The con­trast was sharp. A section of the Indian fans want the team to fail for they are Viratians or Rohitians. In England, however, it is all about the team and backing them to the end.

I look at the Leeds Test as a serious learn­ing. Ahead of the tour, I was the one who doubted the team’s batting. Always felt we needed an extra batting cushion at num­ber eight in case there was a collapse. That’s what India did and unfortunately it did not work. Shardul Thakur had a poor Test with the bat and the experiment backfired. From what we have seen in Leeds, I am convinced this top order is good enough to score against this English attack and seven batters are good enough to do the job. Such a combination al­lows India to play the extra wicket-taking bowler who can help Jasprit Bumrah & Co. That’s what I am looking for in Birmingham. India has now shown that they can compete. It is time to up the ante and push England. Such a thing can only happen if you pick 20 wickets and the inclusion of Kuldeep Yadav in the mix is essential for India to do so.

At Leeds, there was a point on day five when England had lost half the side for 300. They still needed 70 runs to win and the match was in the balance. Jadeja was getting a lot of pur­chase from the rough and young Jamie Smith had walked in to join Joe Root. That’s where India missed Kuldeep. Someone like Smith has never played quality left-arm wristspin and the lower middle order would have struggled against Kuldeep. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been picked. This is where India can do better. With Leeds as an example, they can tweak the com­bination to add muscle to the bowling. There is little debate that Kuldeep has the ability to pick wickets and could indeed be India’s sec­ond best option after Jasprit Bumrah. The oth­er change that I want to see in Birmingham is Nitish Reddy in place of Karun Nair. While I am conscious that one chance isn’t enough to judge someone, it is also true that you need to play horses for courses. Kuldeep can only re­place Shardul, if Reddy is there in the team to provide a breather to the faster bowlers.

Shardul, at Leeds, bowled 15 overs in the entire game. Nitish is more than capa­ble of doing so. We have seen him bowl long spells at the nets and his batting is a huge as­set based on what we have seen in Australia. His inclusion will mean Bumrah, Siraj and Prasidh, who I think will get one more oppor­tunity, have some additional help. It will also mean India can add Kuldeep for Shardul to complement Jadeja on days four and five.

England, from the evidence of Headingley, are beatable. India’s batting, as seen at Headingley, has the ability to stand up and score runs in these conditions. Now, it is of paramount importance to sort out the bowl­ing and get it right. You need to pick 20 wick­ets to win a cricket game and unless you do so, all the effort with the bat will go waste. That’s what Gambhir and Gill need to do and that’s what should be the aim in Edgbaston. India may have lost in Leeds but there is enough to believe this team can fight and push England in the rest of the series.

HeadingleyIndian cricketIndian Test CricketShubman Gill