An end is a beginning

Coming into what was eventually the final day of this long and winded edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), everything was technically still very much in the balance. Balanced, at that point in the morning, was the outcome of the Sydney Test, as well as series itself (1-2), retaining of the trophy (in case of a drawn series, the previous winners get to keep it) and, most significantly for Indian cricket, the public perception of the Test team – for all the visceral hate received online by the players, there was an equal amount of love and appreciation to even the keel.

Then the third day’s play of this low-scoring thriller began at the Sydney Cricket Ground, in what was virtually a one-innings shootout. The first innings scores of 185 (India) and 181 (Australia) had negated each other, and all eyes were on how many more runs the visitors could add to their overnight total of 141/6, with capable bats in Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar at the crease.

Only 16 runs in the space of 45 minutes, ostensibly, most of those runs scored from the outside edges of swaying blades and India had set Australia a target of 162 runs. Not insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly a gnarly set of runs in a match where none of the innings had crossed the 200-run mark. But all eyes were now on the leader of India’s bowling pack and stand-in leader of the team, Jasprit Bumrah, whose evergreen wizardry in Australia had kept India competitive in the first place. Bumrah had complained of back spasms in the first innings and had even visited the hospital late on Day 2. So, when he walked out to bat as a No.11 and was the last wicket to fall, there was hope of him leading India’s attack with the ball. He didn’t, or couldn’t rather, and that, as they say, was that.

Mohammed Siraj opened the bowling in Bumrah’s stead, conceded 13 runs in the first over – including five wides sprayed down the leg side on a pitch that produced plenty of wickets when the ball was kept outside of off. By the time Siraj finished his second over, and the innings’s third, Australia were already 35 for no loss, the highest Test score after three overs for the hosts since the game started keeping records of such numbers. The end was now just a formality, which was ushered in in great style a couple of hours later when Beau Webster, a Test debutant no less, thumped Sundar over mid off to the boundary and the misery was finally over.

Thus, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy had been won (3-1) by the Aussies for the first time in a decade, which ensured Pat Cummins’s side made the ongoing cycle’s World Test Championship final, largely in India’s stead. And, thus, came to a close a great era of Indian cricket, with plenty of changes in personnel expected before the start of the new Test season, in England later this June.

So, what does the future hold for Indian cricket, currently transitioning from one era to another? The educated answer is a simple one – eventually a glorious one, given the country’s infrastructure for the sport and the quality seen in the upcoming generation. In short, then, the final day of the now-complete BGT wasn’t the beginning of an end as the naysayers believe, but rather an end followed by a new beginning, one that is yet to be shaped in its ways.

Border-Gavaskar TrophycricketIndia-AustraliaMohammed SirajPat CumminsWeb Exclusive