Winning Mantra for Test Cricket : (Sometimes) Be ready to look ugly to achieve the beauty of victory 

First of all, congratulations to New Zealand for a fantastic win against mighty India in India. Lets make no mistake, this win is a monumental feat considering it has come after a gap of 36 years and happens to be the team's third test victory ever on Indian soil. If you keep an eye on the disturbing fall in standard of New Zealand Test Cricket in the last couple of seasons, their abject surrender to a somewhat struggling Sri Lankan team that is far off from being a champion team and the absence of their greatest batter and calming influence, Kane Williamson, this win at Bengaluru must be ranked as a landmark moment for New Zealand Cricket. So Kudos to the team for the fabulous test win and one hopes later in the day, their Women counterparts will make the day even more memorable by winning their maiden WC trophy in the World T20 Championship final. 

Now let us leave aside the Kiwis for a moment and talk about the mighty Indians who came into the first test against the Kiwis as firm favourites. They entered the series as the table toppers in the WTC Table. They were coming into the series on the back of a convincing test series victory against an impressive Bangladesh team' barely a couple of weeks back.There was widespread belief that the aura of invincibility of the hosts at home was too intimidating for the Kiwis to withstand. New Zealand looked disoriented, disjointed and tentative and there were audible whispers about a possible 3-0 whitewash they would face in the hands of the formidable Indians. However, everything changed within the first couple of hours of day one of the first test at Bengaluru. It all started before a ball was bowled when India went with a bizarre decision to pack the team with 3 spinners, leaving out Akash Deep, the 3rd seamer who was mighty impressive during the Bangladesh series. But it was not the only bizarre decision taken by team India. On a pitch that had not experienced a tinge of Sunshine due to inclement weather and heavy rain for days prior to the test match and logically promised prodigious seam and swing atleast on the first few hours of day one, Indian Team decided to bat first, leaving a moist and spicy pitch in the hands of three prong seam and swing attack of New Zealand to exploit it. The Kiwis were delighted and gleefully accepted the gift from India to let them bowl on a Bengaluru pitch that was more like the Hamilton pitch from 2002. They exposed the famous batting line up of India within the first hour of play before dismissing them for an abysmal 46. But does it tell the entire story and trend in Indian batting? Is it all about just one bad decision at the toss? Is there a bigger weakness affecting India than an occasional failure due to a bad decision at toss. Let us look at the whole thing with a little bit of objectivity and honesty. Today, in the final day, under overcast conditions , this 4th innings pitch and Bumrah with the ball at Bengaluru were not any easier than the one that Indian batters faced in the first innings where they folded up for 46. It wasn't much different either from the Adelaide pitch where India had their capitulation for 36 in 2020 or the Centurion pitch where Indian batting collapsed for  a mere 131 in 2023. Let us look at how the opponents fared on that Centurion pitch or Bengaluru pitch. Let us remember how Dean Elgar batted in Centurion and Young and Conway batted today. They took countless blows, looked ugly and clueless many a time. And yet they kept plugging and fighting with the aim of blunting or taking the sting out of bowlers. Because they knew however great a bowler may be, he has to get out of attack after 30-36 balls. He can't keep bowling throughout the day. So even if you look embarrassingly clueless, if you can consume the majority of those 36 balls without letting your ego forcing you to sacrifice your wicket in search of flashy strokes, you would have done yeoman service for your team and much more than the hyped flat pitch flashy stroke makers from India who are grabbing all the hype and hoopla with a few  flashy knocks on flat pitches but mostly come a cropper whenever there is a need to hang in, look ugly, take a few blows and be ready to win a war by willingness to give up in the battle of ego. 

Indian batters are good with their eye candy batting in ideal conditions and flat pitches. They have to learn to be ugly but effective if they want to win on pitches and conditions that are out of their comfort zone in the tougher terrain of SENA Countries. Once they learn to/willing to do it, they can become globally invincible and can win that elusive WTC Final too!

By: Ambika Prasad Mahapatra 

(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)