Arithmetic is straightforward. Four plus one equals three plus two. That is it. No exception.
For Indian cricket fans, however, three plus two was not equal to four plus one. At least not until last Thursday.
The Indian team management’s decision to field four fast bowlers and a solitary spinner in the Lord’s Test match opened the question round on social media for the fans.
No Ashwin? Again?
Questions turned into statements over the next four days. Moeen Ali’s wicket of Ravindra Jadeja opened the floodgates. The turn was there for the taking. India’s best option to exploit the pitch, however, was not there.
It all boiled down in the hot goblet that Lord’s Cricket Ground was in the first session of the final day.
Rishabh Pant’s dismissal had brought England on the front foot against a long Indian tail. Ashwin’s exploits with the bat had been in the news when England had toured India earlier this year. He had even scored a hundred. Wouldn’t he have been vital in this situation?
Over the next 85 minutes, however, it was clear that even the bins would refuse to accept those waste questions.
‘Own that trash!’ they must have exclaimed.
Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. Slogging. Cover driving. Running down the track. Swinging. The bat did not look alien in their hands. The Lord’s balcony was lit up with emotions, yet again. This was different. Make no mistake, it was.
Indian fans will not forget the sight of an injured Shami walking towards the dressing room on 19 December 2020. Him retiring hurt had concluded the dreadful 36/9 at the Adelaide Oval.
But here he was, dancing down the track, helping the ball sail 92 m to complete his second Test fifty. He now has more runs in the series than his captain and his vice-captain.
The partner in his crime at Lord’s was Bumrah, who had incurred the fury of England for his bouncer barrage at their leading wicket-taker, who was also a 39-year-old batting at No. 11. The hosts wanted their doguna lagaan.
Earlier in the morning, the contest was stirred up with some words and some nasty ones 💥🔥#ENGvsINDpic.twitter.com/5bOqILag8s
— CricketNews.com (@cricketnews_com) August 16, 2021
The red Dukes was dispatched, short and quick. As were words, long and slow. Bumrah had more Test wickets (92) than runs (71) when he walked in to bat. By the time he was called back in the dressing-room by his captain, he had changed that equation with his highest score in the format.
His score would eventually be more than any England batter managed in the second innings. If that hurt England, the telltale asterisk next to Bumrah’s score was salt to the open wound.
With the ball in hand, Indian pacers owned every blade of grass – and beyond – at Lord’s. Their captain had given them 60 overs to bowl out England: they only needed 51.5 to wrap up the present, in red of course.
For the second time in the series, the Indian fast bowlers (four of them) had picked all the wickets in the Test. Twenty at Trent Bridge, 19 at Lord’s (one run out). Time travel will take us back to 2017/18 Johannesburg when the all-pace 20-wicket haul away from home was a first-time experience in Indian cricket history.
Having already lost the three-match series, India did not include a single spinner in the final Test match. Hardik Pandya used to feature regularly in India’s red-ball squad then. With four wickets and 63 runs, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was named Player of the Match. Neither is part of the Indian squad in England.
Three years ago in South Africa, Ashwin had been dropped for the last Test, having played in the first two. In England, he is yet to feature in this Test series, despite having picked most wickets the last time India played England. Despite being R. Ashwin.
In 2021, India have assembled an artist unit that is capable to perform anywhere. Be it on a green garden or a desert patch in the middle of a green park. Be it on a cold London evening with the clouds on top or be it a scorching morning in Brisbane. You invite them, they invite you, it does not take time before they attack you. It is a rhyme. They are the artists and your wicket is their art.
When India played England at home, Ashwin and Axar Patel pulled the strings. Between them, they shared 59 of the 80 wickets that India took in the four Tests. Fifty-nine. There were other spinners too. Pacers played the supporting role.
Five months later, the situation is the opposite. The conditions are the opposite. But the wicket-taking mandate remains the same. ‘Take all 20’ is the mantra of the current Indian team.
Since Virat Kohli took over as full-time Test captain in January 2015, India have the best bowling average in the world. In terms of strike rate, they are only second to South Africa, with a difference of 1.3.
At home, it has been about spinning a web (makes all the more sense with a spiderman involved). In the window of the last six years, Indian spinners have more wickets, better average, and better strike rate than any of their global counterparts.
Indian spinners lead the tally in all Tests since 2015
Ashwin and Jadeja have been India’s most successful bowlers at home, sharing over half of India’s wickets. They are the only ones to have picked 100 wickets since 2015. Their batting prowess is a bonus.
As if this was not enough, Axar Patel played a debut series for the world to take note of. Washington Sundar has shone more with the bat, but can be decisive with the ball as well, as he was in the first Test innings that he bowled in on a first-day Gabba surface.
Away from home, in the same period, India have the best bowling average and strike rate as well.
Since that South Africa series, when Jasprit Bumrah made his Test debut, Indian pacers have picked more wickets with better average and strike rate than any other group of fast bowlers.
Indian pacers have changed the game for them in away Tests since 2018
The trio of Bumrah, Shami, and Ishant are followed by Ashwin and Jadeja in the tally away from home over the last three and a half years. All five are likely to feature in the preferred Indian XI for most. They formed India’s bowling attack in the WTC final, where a defeat spawned questions around the 4+1 policy ahead of 3+2 in typical English conditions.
In Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, India have bowlers who have almost instantly repaid the trust put in them. At the Gabba, they were part of a bowling attack built from the only fit men available. Now in England, they are worthy enough to be among the four, which was why they are in England in the first place.
Ishant’s injury allowed Thakur to play at Trent Bridge, and he repaid the faith. When Thakur got injured before Lord’s, almost every Indian fan saw it as a confirmation of India being forced to drop back to the three pacers and two spinners. Without him, the tail looked too long.
Something Ashwin could change. There was a time Hardik would address all that as well.
But Hardik’s absence or Ashwin’s presence turned out to be irrelevant for India at Lord’s.
The morning session of Day 5 at Lord’s nicely topped the first-innings contribution of India’s tail in Trent Bridge. The statement was made after the evidence was there for the world to see.
‘When we were most successful away from home, our lower order performed,’ said Kohli after the win at Lord’s. That’s something we walked away from when we played away from home. The coaching staff and the guys have been working hard on it.’
What mattered beyond everything was that the team remained firm in their belief of the modern law of, ‘take all 20’.
In 2021, Indian bowling is the liberal dream we strive for, of being what one wishes to be. Fans have the luxury to boast what probably no one has, and not many will, in the time to come. A top-tier spin-and-pace bowling attack, structured for cricket anywhere and everywhere.
They must embrace it till they can. They must stand up, spray their favorite cologne, walk to the street, and shout, ‘4+1 = 3+2 for us’.
Trust me, the world will believe you.