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Opinion
The recently concluded India vs Australia series will go down as one of the best of all the time, with the classic tale of the underdog team delivering the knockout punch.
For India, it was all about guts and grit, with the mightiest of contributions coming from the unlikeliest of heroes. A win for the ages!
As an Indian fan, the most pleasing thing was not merely the fact that the bench strength really punched beyond their weight, but the fourth-innings performances. We had seen India compete for the better part of the game in previous tours but the wheels were coming off by the fourth innings. Quite a few times we have struggled to chase scores under 200.
On this tour, we came close to chasing 400-plus and then held on for a remarkable draw. Then, on the final day of the final Test, we did – chased down 325 on against arguably the best bowling line-up in the world.
Which leads us to the aftermath of Australia’s successive losses to India at home, most recently to a second-string team. But should we chalk this up to the team coming from a country with 1.4 billion?
India has long had a booming population – back when Australia dominated world cricket, Indian still had a billion population but produced patchy performances.
Back then, experts would often credit the tough Australian domestic structure for the country’s dominance, as the domestic Shield trophy produced tough and skillful cricketers from just six teams.
On the other hand, the Ranji Trophy was seen as less effective, with as many as 38 teams participating. The argument was that too many teams made for less-competitive games, hence the players breaking into the national squad were far from the finished product.
Cut to 2021 and the teams contesting in the respective countries is more or less the same. The only major shift was the introduction of the IPL, with a maximum of four foreign players in any team, played out as a global marquee event.
The contribution of IPL is a separate case study in itself – it is blamed when India does not do well in Test cricket, yet is also credited for giving players confidence when they win.
The IPL has not served Indian cricket as well in the T20 format, with the national team making the World Cup finals only once since the domestic tournament’s inception and winning none.
Of course, hindsight is 20-20. Had Australia won the series, they were the favourites going into the last day of the series, most people would have sympathised with India and there would have been no talks about India’s population or domestic structure.
Sure, with only 11 playing spots in a sport so passionately followed makes it competitive to make the Indian Test XI, but that was forever the case – it didn’t emerge in the last ten years. Also, a domestic format where close to 40 teams are competing can’t be ideal compared to one where just six teams are contending.
It is to the players’ credit that they performed as they did, even if having no expectation probably helped their cause.
Sometimes we should not look for ways to justify outcomes, but look to improve and say to the opposition at the end of the day, “Well played!”
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