League of fiery men: Kohli’s team loves a scrap like no other Indian team from the past

Rohit Mahajan

Chandigarh

This Indian team on the tour of England is playing tricks with the memory. Is it brilliant? Or rubbish? Or brilliant again? It’s also trapping fans who pronounce snap judgements: They celebrate a rousing win at Lord’s in London, then eat their words and rebuke Kohli and his men for the dismaying loss at Leeds, then eat their words again and praise the team for the win at the Oval in London.

Virat Kohli, like him or not for his aggressive style and often questionable behaviour, seems to have built a team in his image. It’s very difficult to imagine any Indian team of the past — even teams with all-time greats such as Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, Sehwag, Dhoni and Kumble in them — winning a Test in England or Australia or South Africa after a massive loss. Indeed, we have memories teams with these men being whitewashed in Australia and England. One big loss would lead to absolute dejection — the dominoes would fall swiftly and by the end of the series the surrender would be complete.

Fightback

This team is different. After an innings defeat in the Leeds Test, fans of a certain vintage feared the worst – the series was 1-1, and England seemed to have wrested the initiative.

But India came back very strongly at the Oval — despite conceding a 99-run lead, India won. This is truly remarkable for it is very rare. Only once before had India won a Test abroad after scoring less than 200 in the first innings. This sort of feat can be achieved only by a team with a strong bowling line-up and feisty and fearless players — which Kohli’s team has. The previous instance of a win after less than 200 in the first innings was in 2018 — under Kohli.

At the Oval, in spite of Rohit Sharma’s brilliant century in the second innings, one man stood out in the Indian performance — Shardul Thakur helped India to 191 from 127/7 in the first innings; in the second innings, he came in at 312/6 — with the team only 213 ahead — and knocked out England with a quick 60 off 72 balls. With the ball, he got he got opener Rory Burns and captain Joe Root as they chased 368.

Game-changer

Thakur is the man who exemplifies Kohli’s team’s feistiness — a relentless trier who hits back fearlessly even in the most forlorn situation. Two 50s batting at No. 8, against the English bowlers eager to wrap up India’s innings, deflated them and raised India’s spirits. No wonder Kohli prizes Thakur highly.

“The impact performance we were looking from a lower middle-order point of view, what Shardul has done in this game has to be remembered for a long time,” Kohli said. “Even in first innings he stood up — his 50 was the actually the difference between a 150-160 lead and a 100-run lead (for England). And his 60 in the second innings as well, a counterattacking one… I felt like it deflated the opposition. When I got out in the morning (on Day 4), they were looking at a few more breakthroughs and probably to try to restrict us to a reasonable total. But the way he batted again in the second innings was outstanding.”

India won a Test at the Oval for the first time since 1971; for the first time ever, India won Tests at both the London venues in one series; for the first time since 1986, India have won two Tests in a series in England. These facts, and the feistiness of Kohli’s men, raises hope of a great contest in the final Test at Manchester.

• 2nd Second Test win for India at the Oval in 14 attempts. Their only previous win at this venue came in 1971
• 8 centuries for Rohit Sharma in Tests. All 8 tons by Sharma have led to Indian wins. No other Test player has scored more 100s that led to wins of their team
• 1986 Was the The last time India won more than one match in a Test series in England
• 2007 England have not lost a Test series to India at home since 2007