The Indian team had been promising a lot over the past season or so but results didn’t quite match up to the hype. They came close to clinching wins against South Africa (in Johannesburg in December 2013), Australia (in Adelaide late last year) and against the Sri Lankans (at Galle in the first Test) but were denied due to the opposition’s determination and their own poor execution.
Celebration of 200! Thank you everyone for the wishes. Feeling blessed and grateful. Also, Happy Birthday to Me
The series in Sri Lanka provided them with the perfect opportunity to get a proper away series win under the belt as their opponents were not fighting fit following series reversals against Pakistan.
That the hosts managed to pull off one of the most sensational come-from-behind wins in the opening Test was down equally to Dinesh Chandimal’s outrageous century and Indian bowlers’ indiscipline.
It was a tough defeat to digest for Virat Kohli but the team stuck to their task and won the next two in emphatic manner.
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The catalysts for India’s win were the bowlers. Kohli put his weight behind the five-bowler theory and they can be proud it has paid off.
Centurions like Ajinkya Rahane and Kohli apart, the two players who dazzled with their efforts were off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and quick Ishant Sharma.
It didn’t come as a surprise that Ashwin was the leading wickettaker of the series with 21 scalps as he has turned his game around completely. However, it’s the performance of quick Ishant Sharma that has stood out, in more ways than one.
Bowling with great pace and aggression, he was relentless, especially in the second and third Tests. He picked up 13 wickets in three Tests and had a huge role to play in the scalps that other bowlers got as well.
But it’s also a fact that Ishant went overboard with his aggression. His send-offs to batsmen, altercations with counterpart Dhammika Prasad and over-the-top celebrations made for ugly viewing and resulted in both fines and a Test match ban.
For someone who has been playing international cricket for more than eight years, and who now has 200 Test wickets, Ishant acted like a newcomer desperate to prove a point.
While it is heartening to see the Indians giving more than their 100 per cent in the field, they need to make sure that success doesn’t go to their head and they learn where to draw the line as far as confrontation with the opposition team is concerned.
Ishant has been bowling as well as he ever has in his career but must now sit out a match. It could all have been handled more maturely and it’s up to captain Kohli to ensure that the Indians learn the fine art of controlled aggression.
Otherwise they will end up spending a lot more time in the match referee’s room.
