AA Edit | India sweeps ‘Bazball’ aside

Team India is in clover after toppling the English brand of ‘Bazball’ in Test match arenas and getting back to the top of the Test ladder and hence topping all three formats. The best part of it all was that the 4-1 verdict over Team England was made possible by a young Indian Test side that was missing a stalwart of the game like Virat Kohli, who was away on personal leave, besides a few other star performers like KL Rahul.

The deeds of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel ensured that Team India had the runs on the board, irrespective of tough match situations. The spinners were on top of their game, as ever, with Ravichandran Ashwin, who coincidentally had the same match figures of 9-128 in his first Test 13 years ago and in his 100th Test, being outstanding in his studious destruction of England’s ‘Bazball’ fixated batters, and a rejuvenated Kuldeep Yadav.

Team England were competitive up to a point after snatching victory in the first Test when they were a sweeping success with their positive sweep shot tactics. But soon, the conditions, in which it is wiser to eke out Test runs with traditional methods of temperament ruling as much as technique, caught up with them. Team India were the better bowling team in pace and spin and its batters were more patient in run gathering.

Ably led by Rohit Sharma, who put away concerns over his form with two centuries, Team India showed ideal enthusiasm for the Test match game also and the cricket board stepped in to incentivise further the longer format the purists swear by with an attractive payment scheme.

In the end, Team England, prone to boasting of their tactics of always showing positive intent and attacking in every situation, were taken to the cleaners by the home team that applied itself diligently with Test match skills. It does appear now that India and Australia, the two teams with the best win percentage, are headed towards clashing again in the summit of the World Test Championship.