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There was a certain poetic justice in Dhruv Jurel applying the finishing touches to a stirring counter-attack whose orchestration played a decisive role. If it was his fighting 90 in the first innings that had brought India within striking distance of England’s 353 in the first innings, an incredibly composed and unbeaten 39 in the second, under immense pressure in the company of the equally unflappable Shubman Gill , guided the course. to a five-wicket win in the fourth Test.
Monday’s well-earned, hard-fought success gave India a 17th consecutive home series win (take a moment and savor that, no other team has more than 10 consecutive wins) while extending Bazballing England’s quest for win a series over 18 months. For all the hype and fuss about the brand of cricket that Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have espoused, it’s the results that you judge. In that sense, England is currently lying on its back, looking up. But that’s really England’s problem, isn’t it?
India has reason to look to the future with optimism and conviction as this 3-1 scoreline has been created by both the young Turks and the established heroes – captain Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah.
So much has been made of England’s inexperienced spin attack that India’s batting inexperience has almost become an afterthought. In this series alone, Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar and Jurel made their debut, along with pacer Akash Deep. Without Virat Kohli and KL Rahul (after the first Test), they looked ripe for the pick. After all, Yashasvi Jaiswal had only played four Tests previously and Gill was yet to settle in at No. 3. And he looks at where we are now.
Jaiswal tops the run-scoring charts by a distance: his tally of 655 is 313 more than his nearest competitor Gill, the second-highest run-maker in the two sides. Sarfaraz marked his debut with knocks of 62 and 68 not out in Rajkot, and Jurel’s first three knocks in Test cricket marked 46, 90 and now 39 not out. Only Patidar, with 63 runs in six innings, has suffered bitter disappointment. And to think that at some point Kohli, Rahul and Rishabh Pant will also be back in the fray!
Also read: Virat Kohli’s much-awaited reaction to the India series earns an ode to Jurel, Sarfaraz, Jaiswal and Gill
On Monday in Ranchi it was a sixth-wicket pair comprising a 24-year-old (Gill) and a 23-year-old, the former in his 24th Test and the latter in his second. By the time they joined in the second after lunch, India had found ways to collapse from 84 for no loss to 120 for five, the target of 192 seeming a million miles away. Shoaib Bashir, the impressive 20-year-old, bagged a hat-trick after defeating Jadeja and Sarfaraz in the blink of an eye. If Jurel wasn’t nervous, he should have been.
Well, maybe he was, but he didn’t show it. An hour before joining Gill, India had embarked on a slow process, always fraught with danger. They paid the price for being overly cautious; Jack mackerel brought with him that much maligned word “intention.” That manifested itself not in expansive strokeplay, but through excellent positioning and intelligent running between the wickets. Gill, calm and collected, finally found an ally he could trust to hold up his end of the deal. Noticeably, he could feel the shift in the balance of power a quarter of an hour after their association.
As admirable as the unbeaten 72-run stand was, what made it even more commendable was the premise around which it was built. The grubber was always going to be the most dangerous delivery on a surface that played much better than it looked and much better than the paranoid Englishmen believed it would. Therefore, both right-handers used their feet to reach the spinner, often stepping outside the line of stump to get leg out before exiting the equation. They didn’t just wait for the loose ball to arrive, they made their own play by targeting the gaps without taking any risks. That revealed game and situational awareness, a tremendous cricketing intelligence that comes from the tough grind of domestic cricket and an inherent understanding of his own and the opposition’s strengths.
At some point, Gill may become India’s leader. Jurel has already assured that Pant’s return will not be easy, that the pedigree wicketkeeper-batsman will have to take his place. Who knows, Jurel might even be considered a specialist hitter. India’s future in the post-Rohit and Kohli phase, whenever that may be, revolves around these two, Jaiswal, Sarfaraz and Pant. For now, it’s safe to say that that future is in safe and reliable hands.