Test Cricket is Not Boring, Come Fall in Love
When Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane spoke at the press conference post his team’s emphatic win in Brisbane, it seemed as if India win Test series like this on a regular basis. He gave typical ‘Rahane’ responses and while answering one of the questions, he very mildly put it that he doesn’t know what happened.
That’s what Test cricket does to you. It leaves you in a state of trance, must like a five-setter in a tennis match. When players like Nadal and Djokovic take a Grand Slam final to the very last set, searching for the very last break point to seal the deal, every part of their body is crying out loud to stop, but they push on for that one last point.
And when one of them finally lifts the trophy, tears come gushing down from their eyes. The tears are not for their victory, but for the thought that they can go to sleep with a smile, without having to play another grueling point.
Test cricket may not be as physically demanding as tennis, but the one thing that binds the two is that a team/player is never out of the contest until the game is over. No matter what the score is, there’s always a definite route for a player to make a comeback in tennis and a cricket team can draw any Test from any given situation, they just have to ensure that they don’t get all out. Easier said than done, of course.
But think about it. If in a T20/ODI game, two not-so-good batters are trying to chase 80 runs from the last five overs, it’s virtually an impossible situation, leaving you to switch off your television set. But, you should never turn your back on a Test or a tennis match, because you never know, a Ashwin and a Vihari could close out the day with an injured back and an injured hamstring.
How does one watch something that goes on for five days, you asked? How does it matter if the batter keeps leaving the ball? What’s there in it anyway?
I have only one word for the above questions — Survival. A team can turn up for a series with arguably the best batsman since Bradman and the best bowler in the current generation against a touring side without their star player and key frontline bowlers for much of the series, and the home side is still not guaranteed a victory. Because in Test cricket, you can’t just win by being the better side on the day. No matter how many runs you score, you have to get the other team all out twice. And that’s where the survival card comes in, the one India used time and time again through the Test series in Australia.
Virat Kohli gone? It’s okay, we’ll survive. Have to bat out over 130 overs? It’s okay, we’ll survive. Every time, an Indian batter left the ball this series, we heaved a sigh of relief. Every time, an Indian batter defended, we heaved a sigh of relief. Every ball counted and that’s how Test cricket lovers watch people leave and defend deliveries all day — for five days.
You are given points for showing grit, determination and tenacity in Test cricket. If India after facing all sorts of bubble issues, injury issues, racial abuse, drew the Test series or drew all three matches after the 36 all out debacle, it would’ve been an incredible achievement in itself.
But India went on to win the series, which catapulted the 2–1 result to the very top of the list of India’s greatest cricketing triumphs.