India vs England: Remarkable Rohit Sharma, Pant-astic Rishabh, incredible R Ashwin and other takeaways from Test series

19th December. India are all out for 36. 19th January. India breach the Gabba fortress.

6th February. India lose a Test at home after four years. 6th March: India win the series 3-1.

In the 140-plus years that Test cricket has existed, only once before had a team overturned deficits to win back-to-back series; India, with their turnarounds in Australia and now against England, have joined the club.

The latest joy at home — a record-extending 13th successive Test series win on home soil – comes with the added sheen of a spot in the inaugural World Test Championship final, where they will lock horns with New Zealand in June.

A look back at what we learned from the four-match contest between India and England, the first international cricket series in India since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Depth has a new definition

“Our bench strength has been as strong as it has ever been. That’s a great sign for Indian cricket.”

Virat Kohli’s words before picking up the Anthony de Mello Trophy could not ring any truer; an idea that was forced upon India by the unending spate of injuries on tour in Australia took further strides in the comfort of home climes.

The hosts were without their ace all-rounder in Ravindra Jadeja. They were without their standout pacers of recent times in home conditions, two pacers who have even out-bowled the spinners in the last two seasons, in Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. Jasprit Bumrah bowled all of six overs in the three games India won. They were also without a performing middle-order, in the absence of runs from the blades of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.

And yet, India’s come-from-behind series win was achieved with victories by the margin of 317 runs, 10 wickets, and an innings and 25 runs.

Axar Patel, despite missing the first Test, took 27 wickets: The joint-most by an Indian in his debut series. Washington Sundar, who had only made his debut at Brisbane in January, played another match-defining and series-defining hand with the bat in a deciding game. Mohammed Siraj didn’t get a lot of game-time, but troubled England whenever he did.

None of these three can be confident of starting India’s next Test match, or series.

Between the WTC final and the five-Test series against England, India’s long English tour will also feature a four-day practice game between India and India ‘A’. Given the depth in class, that might be one of the more absorbing practice games we’ll ever see.

Rohit’s remarkable range

In the first session of the second Test, with India batting after being dismantled in the opener, Rohit Sharma hit 80 unbeaten runs off 78 balls. Excluding Rohit, India’s session score was 26/3 in 13 overs. When he finished, midway into the third session, Rohit had contributed nearly 65 percent of India’s total score.

Two matches later, as India batted to secure the series and the WTC final berth, Rohit absorbed 144 balls for an innings of 49 runs.

In Chennai, during his 161, Rohit had blasted 61 deliveries of pace for 56 runs. In Ahmedabad, he blocked 90 balls from James Anderson and Ben Stokes for 19 runs. As opposing as the two knocks were, they served a common purpose – deflating the energy of the attack, be it with his destruction, or his defence.

All along the series, no one matched Rohit’s consistency, in terms of both runs and a sense of control while being in the middle.

Say what you might want about his ‘home skills’, but to average nearly 80 after 18 Tests and 27 innings, anywhere and in any conditions, is extraordinary.

The context of these latest runs in India’s series turnaround take the story further: Rohit alone made nearly one-sixth of the total runs scored by both teams in the last three Tests; he averaged 65 in these three games, compared to a mark of less than 20 for the rest.

Rishabh Pant-astic

If you slept through 2020 — lucky you, on a side note — you’d find it impossible to believe that for most of the year, Rishabh Pant was out of favour, across formats.

Nothing was going right. And look at him now.

Words don’t do adequate justice to what Pant did on the second day of the fourth Test. No, really: Just go watch the videos, again and again and again.

While that knock at the Motera shall find its own place in our minds, the best news for India is that this generational talent, finally holding on to his promise, is making it a habit. From Sydney to Brisbane to Ahmedabad, Pant is almost making up for lost time. And this guy is still only 23.

If the returns in front of the stumps this series – 270 runs at 54, strike rate 84.11, three 50-plus scores in six innings – were important, the rubbing off behind the stumps was inspiring: There were eight catches and five stumpings, but more than that, as a function of confidence combined with hours on the training field, Pant cut a figure that belonged, irrespective of the size of the gloves he was wearing.

Middle order, middling returns

Is this going to be addressed? Or are we trapped in a bubble of angst-ridden press-conferences at its very mention?

Slice it whichever you like, but this was a troubled series for India’s batting fulcrum – and that’s a troubling sign for India’s immediate future.

Cheteshwar Pujara averaged 22.17, Virat Kohli 28.67, and Ajinkya Rahane 18.67. Between them, India’s numbers three-four-five returned four half-centuries in 18 innings.

Pujara’s failing, beyond the numbers, was a new one — four of his six dismissals came from the 89 balls he faced from Jack Leach; prior to this series, left-arm orthodox spinners had got Pujara out five times in 1,862 balls.

Kohli, to be fair, ought not to be bracketed with the two men flanking him in the batting order, and not because of his greater records — he did, despite the humbling returns, play two of the finest knocks of this series, in terms of handling spiteful conditions: The fourth innings 72 in the series-opener, and the third innings 62 in the second game.

Rahane, as much as he may not agree himself about his inconsistent returns, could do well to tackle a more evident hole in his game. At home in the last two years, India’s vice-captain averages nearly 75 against pace — and just 30 against spin.

Ashwin: National treasure, global benchmark

He doesn’t beat batsmen off the surface, he plays with their minds. His own mind, he’s unafraid to express, anywhere, everywhere. His expression of ideas is no longer limited to just press-conferences, as he puts out some mean punches through his YouTube channel. And the punches, as he displayed, are still there with the bat in hand too.

From thinking he won’t be a playing XI pick in Australia, to reaffirming his position as the imminent spinner of this generation, it has been a phenomenal four months for Ravichandran Ashwin.

When bowling, Ashwin was agnostic to the experience or the pedigree of his opponent — from Ben Stokes (4/64 off 186 balls) to Ollie Pope (4/53 off 112 balls), he toyed when he wanted. Thirty wickets in four Tests, and you thought for a lot of it he was more in the background as Axar Patel made the waves in his debut series.

The century at Chepauk, while an emotional affair for a hometown hero, also served as a reminder of what else Ashwin can give to this team – especially coming as it did a day after England were bundled for 134.

Ashwin now has eight man-of-the-series awards in Test cricket, the same as Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Shane Warne. Only two men have more, Muttiah Muralitharan (11) and Jacques Kallis (9) — and they played 61 Test series each, compared to Ashwin’s current mark of 30.

Cherish the treasure, while it’s ours.

Long live the lengthy lower-order

Ashwin’s welcome return to batting form was part of what is arguably India’s most vital improvement of the last two months. The change in trend coincides directly with the entry of Washington Sundar into the Test fold.

In India’s last five Tests before Washington’s debut at Brisbane, the last four wickets had contributed a total of 292 runs in eight innings — that’s less than 10 runs per partnership. In the four Tests he’s played, the lower-order has added 584 runs in five completed innings — 29.2 runs per partnership.

Two successive series-deciders, in fact, have been victories that hinged on stands involving Washington — 124 runs with Shardul Thakur from 186/6 at Brisbane, and 219 runs with Pant and Patel from 146/6 at Ahmedabad.

Lower-order runs are a luxury India hadn’t had ever since Bhuvneshwar Kumar fell by the wayside with his injuries, but there’s a changing tide at the moment.

Washington, Ashwin, Patel. Thakur on the fringes. Then one Ravindra Jadeja – batting average 55.57 since the start of 2018. And one Hardik Pandya, whenever he’s fit to bowl again.

It’s a problem of plenty that directly addresses one of the last remaining pieces of the Indian Test match puzzle.