How the Indian cricket team became the Lords of the game

A combined effort by the Indian team was heartening to see.

Making history

What makes a day truly historic? Even if you limit it to just cricket, there’s been a few. When India broke the West Indies stranglehold on cricket on June 25th 1983, when South Africa successfully chased 434 against Australia on 12th March 2006, when Andy Sandham first broke the 300 barrier on 3rd April 1930, and later Brian Lara broke the 400 barrier on 10th April 2004, when Sachin Tendulkar scored the hundredth international 100 on 16th March 2012; these dates are etched in memory, they are almost impossible to forget.

Maybe India’s victory at Lords’ on July 21st 2014 isn’t in the same league, but just looking at their dismal record at the world’s most prestigious cricket ground, it’s definitely one for the history books. That it happened when India’s “golden generation” of batting had moved on, that it happened when no one really gave them a chance, that it happened under a captaincy that’s been questioned, that it happened almost under the radar, is testimony to the achievement, that is a super rare Lord’s victory for the Indian Test team.

A dismal past, a victory for the future

India’s performance at this venue over the past has been dismal to say the least. A quick look at overall visiting team records at this venue puts India as just slightly better than New Zealand. While Australia remain the only visiting team to have won more than they have lost at this ground, South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan have at least held their own from time to time at what is often described as the mecca of cricket.

India even has the dubious record of lowest score among the Test playing elite at this venue. All of this makes this victory that much sweeter for the current bunch. They don’t have the illustrious stars of the past, they don’t play much according to script, and that makes this victory almost similar to the one in the World Cup of 1983, which was won by fringe players chipping in at key moments.

Team	P	W	L	D	H	L
Australia	37	16	7	14	729	53
South Africa	16	5	7	4	682	58
West Indies	20	4	9	7	652	54
Pakistan	14	3	5	6	445	74
India	17	2	11	4	454	42
New Zealand	16	1	7	8	551	47

Legend: P – Played; W – Won; L – Lost; D – Drawn; H – Highest Team Score; L – Lowest Team Score

The weak home team?

There is no doubt that this win has also been possible due to England’s now well documented weaknesses. Since the Ashes series win at home, they have been on a really poor run of form, not helped by big name exits, removals and controversies. Their bowling seems to lack the edge that they had a couple of years ago, and their fragile batting is almost an expression of their shrinking self-belief.

Team 1	Team 2	Winner	Margin	Venue
Australia	England	Australia	381 runs	Brisbane
Australia	England	Australia	218 runs	Adelaide
Australia	England	Australia	150 runs	Perth
Australia	England	Australia	8 wickets	Melbourne
Australia	England	Australia	281 runs	Sydney
England	Sri Lanka	drawn		Lord's
England	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	100 runs	Leeds
England	India	drawn		Nottingham
England	India	India	95 runs	Lord's

Their last nine games have seen seven losses and it’s important to see the margins in the same. Each of these loses have come by large margins clearly exposing the weaknesses of the current side, both in the mental aspect as well as the technical awareness of their opposition. The last four games were at home, making the case for those calling for serious changes in the English setup.

Their game has been grounded, the application patchy and there has been a lack of spirit. Regardless of all this, they still had to be beaten on the field, and Dhoni’s boys applied themselves at key moments of the game to come out on top.

Test cricket remains a team game

From the mid 90s till the end of the last decade, India’s foreign soil Test victories and even some of the draws were usually fashioned by great individual performances. With a stellar batting lineup, India’s best period in Test cricket was fashioned only when Gambhir gave much needed stability at the top of the order as an ideal foil to Sehwag’s mind-numbing brilliance.

With Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman to follow, the batting was as good as it got. But not being able to bowl out opposition batsmen twice in a game was a serious liability on foreign shores and it remained a major concern for too long. Test matches are about winning session by session, and India were always let down by one or two weak sessions in the middle, and on the rare occasion that the bowling did its job, the batsmen couldn’t finish the game.

Lord’s 2014 though had none of that, and that’s what makes it a hope for better tours by Indian teams. It’s early of course to start dreaming, but the way it was done at least gives the team a guiding light for the path forward. Having as many as six players with major contributions in the game made the difference at the end of the fifth day. Ajinkya Rahane (103 in the first innings), Ishant Sharma (7-74 second innings), Murali Vijay (97 in the second innings), Ravindra Jadeja (68 in the second innings at a critical time), Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (36 & 52 with the bat, 6-82 in the second innings with the ball), and Cheteshwar Pujara (time spent at crease on the first morning after losing the toss) all played their part in what can become the turning point of India’s future tours.

If India can replace a past of individuals winning games on their own with consistent performances by the team, then brighter days in Test cricket are certainly a possibility in the near future. As a captain, Saurav Ganguly instilled the self-belief needed to win Tests overseas, his record of 11 wins abroad is still ahead of Dhoni’s six now. The difference is that Ganguly had a good, strong developed side for most part, while Dhoni inherited an aging team and is now developing a new one.

For all the accolades, awards and competitions that Dhoni has won over a remarkable career, if he can finish as the Test captain who scripted this turnaround, that’s the achievement that will please him the most. In the end it will not be about what he did, but how he did it, and that’s how he would want it.