Five Positives for team India from the 500th Test Match

Team India, having completely outplayed New Zealand in the first test match, emerged victorious in Kanpur, by a margin of 197 runs on Day 5 of the first test match, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The Indians, after recovering from a minor setback in the first innings, they never took their foot off the pedal and went to achieve an easy win, this being the 130^th victory in this historic 500^th test match.

The visitors showed some resolve in their performance, with their patient bowling efforts in the first innings. Williamson’s form in the Kiwi first innings was ominous and he will look to build on it after his failure in the second innings on Day 4. Mitchell Santner impressed with both bat and ball. Santner (71) and Luke Ronchi (80) batted with some grit in the second innings and went on to make half-centuries.

With these positives, one can say that all is not lost for the Kiwis, but they will need to step up big time in the coming matches to challenge the mighty Indians.

Team India, on the other hand, continued from where they left off in the Caribbean, with another impressive win under the new regime of captain Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble. There were a lot of positives for the home team in the test match.

Everyone played their role well and contributions from all around resulted in this resounding victory for the Indians.

Here we take a look at five positives of India’s performance in the Kanpur Test:

#1 Ravichandran Ashwin continues to confound batsmen

R Ashwin, currently ranked 3^rd in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers, continued his rich vein of form with the ball, picking four wickets in the first innings and six in the second; his nineteenth five-wicket haul in 37 tests.

In the process, he reached the 200 wicket mark in his test career, dismissing Kane Williamson in the fourth innings of the game. He became the second fastest to reach the milestone, in 37 test matches; only bettered by Australian Clarrie Grimmett, who achieved this milestone in 36 test matches, back in the 1930’s.

Ashwin carried on from where he left off in the West Indies tour, constantly troubling batsmen with his turn and bounce, deceiving the batsmen time and again. The way he adjusted his line to claim Williamson’s wicket after the second day’s play just goes to show his intelligence and also the amount of effort and hard work that is being put in by him to achieve these levels.

#2 Ravindra Jadeja proves his worth in this team

Ravindra Jadeja is one player who comes under a lot of fire when he underperforms, almost to a point where the criticism becomes unfair.

But in Kanpur, he showed his true value in this team. Digging out the team from trouble in the first innings with an unbeaten 42, he went on to claim a five-wicket haul when the Kiwis came out to bat the first time.

He continued his good show with the bat, cracking a wonderfully paced, unbeaten half-century in the Indian second innings, helping them set a huge target. He chipped in with crucial breakthroughs in the final innings of the match as India carried home their advantage and won the game.

It was nice to see him finally put up his hand and take responsibility with the bat lower down the order and Team India will be hoping these performances become a regular occurrence.

#3 Cheteshwar Pujara is back and how!

Pujara has been under a lot of pressure in the past few months. Getting starts but not being able to kick-on from there, can be very frustrating for a batsman who prides himself on being able to play the long innings.

He struggled in the West Indies tour with the bat, as he failed to make good use of the starts he got. He rightly decided to get back to the domestic circuit on his return from the tour, and scored a lot of runs in the Duleep Trophy matches, which has done wonders to his confidence.

He went on to make two half-centuries in the match (62 & 78). The most notable thing about his innings was that he had regained his positive intent. He did not just try to block the ball and hang in there, but instead made sure the bad balls were put to the boundaries and concentrated on rotating the strike well.

He looked comfortable at the crease and will have been slightly disappointed on not reaching the three-figure mark in either innings.

But, surely, Pujara is back!

#4 Murali Vijay is probably one of the best openers around currently

There are very few players who are as highly underrated as Murali Vijay. Vijay has scored runs everywhere, from England to West Indies to Australia. He has been one of the most, if not the most, consistent batsmen for India over the past few years.

Solid in defence, equally adept at stroke-making, he is one of the most prolific opening batsmen in the game currently and he proved just that with his two 50-plus (65 & 76) innings in the Kanpur Test.

While the first innings was all about solidifying and laying the foundation for the middle order to take over, in the second innings, after a slow start, he took the game to the Kiwi bowlers, with a flurry of boundaries, unleashing some ferocious sweeps and lofted shots.

His contribution to this young team is immense and team India will be looking forward to more solid innings from their opener in the future.

#5 Rohit Sharma shows signs of adaptation to the Test format

Every person who follows cricket, will know what a talent Rohit Sharma is. But over the years, he has not been able to make it at the highest level of the game. He seems to somehow fallen prey to his own instincts, ending up playing rash shots and throwing his wicket away.

But on Day 4 of the first test match, the Rohit that we got to watch was a different version. The situation was tailor-made for him, with India needing some quick runs before going in for the kill in the final innings. Ordinarily, we would have seen the Maharashtrian go for it from ball one, no holds barred.

However, in this innings, he held himself back. He avoided his tendency to get reckless and showed signs of controlled aggression. He chose his moments well, watched the ball carefully and most importantly, batted all the way through till declaration.

His 68* will go down as an important innings given the context of the game and his own state of mind.

Hopefully, this represents the start of “Rohit Sharma - The Test Batsman” after years of just being “Rohit Sharma - The Talent”.