Virat Kohli led India to 3-0 series win in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Kandy on Monday. (Source: Reuters)
Before they left for to the stadium on Monday, to perform the last rites of India’s first-ever whitewash on foreign soil of a series involving more than two Tests, Virat Kohli summoned his colleagues to his hotel room. He told them to forget that they had already pocketed the series and were on the brink of a historic feat. Rather, he wanted them to imagine that it was the fifth day of a deciding Test overseas, against a stiffer opposition, where they would have to knock off nine wickets in 60-70 overs. “So that they take that attitude to the field and try to wrap up things and understand how that can be done. We wouldn’t have situations all the time where we’ll get 600, 500… So we keep finding different situations and scenarios where we can challenge ourselves as a team first before we look at the opposition,” Kohli later revealed.
The India skipper was not being disrespectful to their opposition, however dross they might have been during the course of this series, but just pepping up the situation lest they turn lax, and finding relevance out of what seemed a mere formality. It’s the sort of sequence-simulation that former Australian coach Bob Simpson inculcated in his formidable team, and which former coach Anil Kumble had tried to embrace. The prevalent mediocrity of this Sri Lankan side afforded Kohli to start thinking, building and bracing his team for the future. He could extend that to the home series against the Lankans later this year, before they embark on an extended overseas sojourn.
If anything, some of the players have already begun preparing for the tours. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has signed up with the English county side, Worcestershire. Ravindra Jadeja and Kohli too are linked with other counties with the England series coming up next year. Cheteshwar Pujara has already played a couple of seasons for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, and might return for another stint too. They are aware all these whitewashes would soon be forgotten if they struggle abroad next year.
Sensational Shami
So the Indians bristled onto the ground on Monday, intense and callous, like a team on the tenterhooks than a side sauntering to an innings victory inside three days. The bowlers gave yet another concerted effort, especially Mohammed Shami, who tormented their batsmen so regularly and remorselessly that Dinesh Chandimal confided that he made feel them like they were playing on a wickedly green surface in England than on a benevolent track back home. The spinners too were sharp, planning and plotting away, not any moment betraying an impression of complacency.
It took them just 61 overs to wind up the Sri Lankan innings and achieve the historic whitewash, but the simulation part stopped just there. For the celebrations were understated. It was rather sombre — there was no frenetic rush to pluck the stumps or manic high-fives or fist-pumps, or the familiar sight of the captain spitting out a few cuss words into the crisp air. It was such a contrast to the last time they won here, where Kohli paraded the trophy around the ground and even carried it with him to the press conference room, or even the last time they won a Test series — in another hill-station, in the foothills of the Dhauladhar — against Australia after an intensely-fraught series.
Though Kohli, with a sage-like equanimity, stressed that he and his team don’t undervalue any series win, the lack of festivity was all too obvious.
“See again, if you differentiate your level of motivation and intensity according to oppositions, then you’re judging oppositions differently,” he reasoned. Maybe, they’ve gotten so accustomed to rolling over the opposition in a home or home-like conditions, that mundane canters like these don’t thrill them any longer, not after their eighth series win on the spin.
The most exuberant of them was understandably the chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, who took five wickets in the match. Kuldeep sneaked in between Pujara and Ashwin to grab the stump and scooted off before any of the senior players could bully him to return the souvenir. The match was a further reinforcement of Kuldeep’s swelling maturity and resounding promise, signalling that he’s not a mere understudy to Ashwin and Jadeja, but a fierce competitor, especially abroad, where the services of a wrist-spinner are more valued.
After the match, he told television commentator Murali Kartik that he felt more confident bowling with the Kookaburra ball, with its less pronounced seam giving him a better grip to impart revs on the ball, a reason he purchased more bounce than Ashwin. Conversely, both Ashwin and Jadeja have complained of the Kookaburra seam. Though Kohli hinted Kuldeep will have to wait for his chances, his is a reassuring presence. “It’s a sign of our depth that we have played so well even without the No 1 spinner in the world and out best opener (Murali Vijay),” he said.
Not for a moment did he rue Vijay’s absence because Shikhar Dhawan made a terrific comeback to the Tests, with a brace of pummelling hundreds and a man of the series award to boot. He’ll put both Vijay and Rahul under intense pressure. “This is the sort of depth we are trying to nurture,” said Kohli.
Unlike Dhawan and Kuldeep, who’ll have to wait for their opportunities, Hardik Pandya has hit the barn door with a banjo, making him the biggest positive of this series. Kohli’s eyes lit up at Pandya’s mention and he raved the young all-rounder. “You know, a guy who can get a fifty and a hundred in his first three games batting at number 8 has to have something special in him. He brings in great balance to the team, he’s a gun fielder and he gives you those crucial breakthroughs,” he pointed out.
Thus, the pieces of the jigsaw — it wasn’t so jumbled up in any case — are gradually falling into place. The series win and the positives from it will still be viewed with a tinge of scepticism, for it came against the weakest of Sri Lankan sides in decades, but that doesn’t take away the sheer ruthlessness Kohli’s team illustrated in the series. And didn’t always require imagining scenarios.
