Here are five takeaways from India’s 2-0 sweep against the West Indies at home.
Caution: South Africa may deny India points
In Ahmedabad, the West Indies capitulated before anyone could blink. Things seemed headed the same way at Delhi when India declared on 518-5 and had the visitors at 175-8. But the West Indies pushed the total to 248, then reached 212-2 after following on – before eventually collapsing.
Why did this happen? The Delhi surface got progressively slower. Part of that was by design. At the post-match press conference after the second day, Ravindra Jadeja admitted that the team had placed request for slow turners.
The pitch was atypical of Test cricket in India in the World Test Championship era. It is not clear whether last year’s 0-3 defeat against New Zealand – the visitors won two crucial tosses – had played on their minds. Whatever it was, India may not be able to take 20 wickets against stronger sides, and their next two home series are against the WTC 2023-2025 finalists.
The team management is probably aware. After the Test, Gautam Gambhir mentioned that he wanted some pace and bounce (“I think nicks need to carry ... going forward, we can get better wickets in 11 years”).
Kuldeep Yadav is an exceptional bowler
The current Indian team management likes their all-rounders. Outside Asia, thus, they backed Jadeja and Washington Sundar along with Nitish Kumar Reddy. While defensive, it was probably not an illogical approach.
Back home, with the same three all-rounders in the XI (we shall come to that), India reverted to Kuldeep. His brilliance was hardly needed in Ahmedabad, but Delhi demonstrated how good a bowler he was.
Two things became evident very early: the batters got ample time to adjust, and there was no awkward bounce that would fly off the bat to the close-in cordon.
So Kuldeep adjusted. Bowling from over the wicket, he varied his length and sometimes line, but by some magic, every stock ball seemed to be headed for the stumps irrespective of how much they turned. He made the batters play at everything... and waited until his variations got to them. The Shai Hope dismissal in the first innings was the best example of this. And when the ball began to keep low on the fourth day, his ability to aim for the stumps got him two lbws.
As with many great spinners, Kuldeep found a way to pick wickets on a dead surface.
2nd Test, India vs West Indies
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What is NKR’s role in home Tests?
These were not seaming tracks where you needed a change bowler. On turning tracks, it may make sense to pick Reddy, but as the second seamer whose value is in batting. But these were not rank turners either, and India already had two out-and-out fast bowlers. Despite having to bowl more than 200 overs on the trot at Delhi, India did not turn to Reddy even once.
It is not that India see him as a batter. He did not get a chance when seven Indians batted in Ahmedabad. They did promote him to five in Delhi, but that was because he had not batted in the first Test.
Against South Africa, the spinners are likely to do the bulk of the bowling with the two fast bowlers breaking the monotony with short bursts. He is unlikely to bowl. And if he indeed does not bowl, India are better off playing another specialist batter, especially if and when Rishabh Pant returns.
Bumrah is taking his time
Bumrah’s series average of 20.28 conceals the fact that only one of his seven wickets were of batters in the top six. He might have hit the stumps four times, but they were of – in chronological order – Nos. 7, 10, 8, 9 of a team that regularly features in the bottom half of the WTC.
As with the Asia Cup, he was probing – brilliant, even – but only at times. Since the Old Trafford Test (where he was considerably slower), he has not been the Bumrah that left the world in astonishment not too long ago.
Of course, it has been only a couple of months and a bit since he bowled visibly slower than usual in Manchester, but Bumrah is taking his time to return to his devastating best.
This isn’t 1899, the follow-on isn’t mandatory
For all the talks around workload management – of Jasprit Bumrah and others – India enforced the follow-on after bowling 81.5 overs in the Delhi sun. In these pages, Naman Agarwal discussed how the decision was indicative of a team convinced of their own superiority.
They ended up bowling another 118.5 overs, fielding for nearly two days. It can be argued that India expected the wicket to deteriorate rapidly but it did not. But while misjudgements can happen, there was no reason to leave it to chance. India’s target at Delhi was small, but they had failed to chase a similar target at Mumbai last year.
In the late 19th century, there were instances of fielding sides deliberately allowing the team batting second free runs to ensure there was no follow-on: the 1900 Laws made the follow-on optional, putting an end to the practice. There was a reason teams used to avoid batting last – and that reason holds on turners more than anywhere.
South Africa are unlikely to forego advantages if India hand them over in a platter.
