How Kohli-Kumble led Team India to ICC Test No 1 spot
Team India's rise to the No 1 position in ICC Test rankings, dislodging Pakistan, has come at an appropriate time.
At a time when relations between the two neighbours are extremely strained, the word "surgical strike" is used by almost everyone in common parlance.
On the cricket field, if one can talk of surgical precision, Team India has done just that with the man-in-command Virat Kohli showing how much he has matured as a captain and is now willing to show flexibility.
When Anil Kumble was chosen as the Team India coach last year before the tour to the West Indies, he had spoken of how he wanted the side to do well in the longer format of cricket.
In the past, people had spoken of a great professional bonding between Kohli and former India team director Ravi Shastri.
Agreed, they showed good results but when the time came for a change in coach, former greats had no hesitation in hiring Kumble.
As a thinking cricketer, Kumble had done enough with his bowling.
Later, coaching, or to be more precise mentoring, came naturally to him and his stint with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL was very successful.
With the Indian team as well, Kumble has done his job in a quiet manner and not craved for publicity using the media. At the same time, he has let Kohli call the shots in the field.
There are various takes on captaincy in cricket. In the good old days, someone like Mike Brearley led the side purely on leadership skills and it was not important how much he was going to contribute as a pure cricketer for the English side.
Talk of captaincy and Kohli, he is a natural leader and at the same time shown he is flexible while strategising and taking decisions on the field. He is the same man who was a proponent of the five-bowler theory for India in Tests.
What one saw in the three Tests against New Zealand in Kanpur, Kolkata and Indore was different, where four bowlers were used.
It worked very well as there was no rigidity in picking the bowling combination but how "horses for courses" was the new philosophy.
It all depended on where the team was playing. The choice of bowlers picked was smart and both medium pacers and spinners had huge roles to play.
The skipper read the conditions in Kolkata well and Bhuvneshwar Kumar was picked for the Kolkata Test ahead of Umesh Yadav and it paid dividends.
When it came to the Indore Test, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were ready to deliver in ample measure as spin was the flavour.
Talk of the batting order, Kohli showed a clear preference for specialists at the top.
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| R Ashwin. (Photo credit: PTI) |
If KL Rahul was injured, Shikhar Dhawan got a look in. And when Dhawan got injured, "veteran" Gautam Gambhir got to play in the last Test at Indore.
What was good to see was the skipper did not sacrifice the specialist's slot and send someone ahead as a makeshift opener.
Against the Kiwis, Kohli and Kumble also did well to back solid batsmen with credentials.
They gave confidence and room for the specialist batsmen to dig their feet in and score which is how Rohit Sharma repaid the faith imposed in him at the Eden Gardens. The same was the case with Cheteshwar Pujara.
From Sunday, it will be back to the OD format against the Kiwis but after that India would do well to consolidate their position further in Tests and hold on to the No 1 ranking.
England will be coming after this and there is revenge to seek as the last time they came here, Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar played havoc in the Test series.
A five-Test series against England, with the dangerous Joe Root in form will be interesting to watch. After that, India plays four Tests against Australia and one Test against Bangladesh.
Such a packed season can be a good chance for India to consolidate further in Test rankings.
For all those who complained about Test cricket being boring and crowds not coming to watch, recent matches have shown a different trend.
You can complain that India makes designer wickets for bowlers like Ashwin and Jadeja to run through the rival batting.
And when Kohli talks about how important even more contributions are, it's a great job of motivating the players and sending a signal everyone counts in the side.
The way Ashwin and Jadeja have batted are a big plus which goes to show that there is great room for contributing in more than one way.
Sitting beyond the boundary, one does get the impression this Indian Test team is enjoying what it is doing. With surgical precision!
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)