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The last time Virat Kohli missed a home Test was in November 2021, against New Zealand in Kanpur in Rahul Dravid’s first Test as India head coach. Shreyas Iyer, on debut, held the middle order together with efforts of 105 and 65 on a low, dead surface where the last pair of Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel held on 52 deliveries to force a thrilling draw.
Kohli had given enough notice of his unavailability for that match, New Zealand didn’t hold the same aura as England, and the Kanpur track held few terrors, especially given that spinners Ajaz, Ravindra and William Somerville didn’t enjoy strong credentials – offie Somerville was playing his fifth Test, left-arm spinner Ajaz his tenth and Ravindra, also a left-armer, was making his debut.
This was different. In a sudden development just three days before the start of the high-profile, eagerly anticipated five-match showdown against the dangerous English, Kohli withdrew from the first two Tests for personal reasons. True, the England spin attack isn’t the most celebrated either – Jack Leach, their only experienced spinner, had played 35 Tests previously, Joe Root is primarily a top-order batter who does bowl excellent off-spin, leggie Rehan Ahmed was one Test young and left-arm spinner Tom Hartley was making his first appearance. But England are England, attacking and prolific with the bat and therefore using that scoreboard pressure to intimidate opposition batters.
How would India’s middle order shape up in Kohli’s absence? Would that massive absence prove decisive?
Quite nicely, thank you. And definitely not.
Those are the answers that reverberated around the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday, day two of the first Test.
The spinners and Yashavi Jaiswal had combined to drive the hosts to a strong position on day one, but when Jaiswal fell in the first over of day two with India 123 for two, exactly halfway to England’s tally of 246, the door had been prised open just a touch. The game was poised on a knife’s edge, Ben Stokes’ men buoyed by the early success and a tense gathering wondering what would happen minus the virtuoso No. 4.
As it turned out, their apprehensions were singularly unfounded. India’s middle order acquitted itself excellently, helped in no small measure by the recent addition of KL Rahul and the spunk and determination of Ravindra Jadeja, the bedrocks around whom the hosts constructed a potentially decisive lead of 175 runs.
If there must be one criticism of India’s middle order on a day when 302 runs were scored in 87 overs for the loss of six wickets, it has to be the manners of their dismissal. Shubman Gill, in his new avatar at No. 3, undid all the grafting of the previous hour and a half with a half-hearted whip that found mid-wicket, while Iyer and Rahul threw their hands away, both caught in the deep, the latter with a second century in three Tests there for the taking.
On a pitch such as this, low and slow with some help for the spinners, it was imperative to prevent wickets falling in clusters, to stitch partnerships together. That’s something India did superbly well; Rahul was involved in successive fifty-plus stands with Iyer and Jadeja, who then realised half-century alliances with wicketkeeper KS Bharat and fellow left-handed all-rounder Axar Patel. Rahul held the top half of the middle order together with his nimble footwork, surety of defence and deft hands. Jadeja took it upon himself to shepherd the bottom half of the middle order, putting aside his culpability in the run out of R Ashwin to close in on a fourth Test ton when stumps were drawn for the day.
Admittedly, this wasn’t the truest test of India’s middle, given that a knock on the knee while fielding prevented Leach from bowling as much as he should have, and that a loose offering wasn’t far away when Hartley and Rehan were in operation. But the sheer bloody-mindedness and the desire to bat once and bat big, a throwback to the 1990s when Navjot Sidhu, Vinod Kambli, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin took spinners of all ilk to the cleaners, were conspicuous by their presence. The addition in the XI of Axar at the expense of Kuldeep Yadav meant India batted deep, till No. 9. Axar’s already had a fine game with ball and bat, with the promise of more to come when the pitch deteriorates further.
Kohli is beyond replaceable, but Rahul, Iyer, Jadeja, Bharat and Axar have shown that there is more to the Indian middle-order than him. Nothing will have pleased Rohit Sharma and Dravid more.
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