The second Test Match between India and Bangladesh at Kanpur seemed like it was one for the history books. After just 35 overs of play on day 1 and then consecutive days being washed out due to rain and poor drainage system, most people were certain that it’d end in a draw (if at all any play was possible). The only reason this Test could have been remembered was because of the countless memes comparing the state-of-the-art on-ground drainage systems of other cricket boards and the archaic facilities of the richest cricket board on the planet, BCCI.
However, clearly, the Indian Cricket Team had other plans. The play started on day 4 with barely 180 overs of cricket and all 4 innings remaining. After our bowling line-up (arguably the best in the world right now) finished their business as usual, the intent of Team India became evident when the Indian openers started smashing the Bangladesh bowlers from ball one.
Every Indian batsman that came on the pitch had only one approach to the game, to attack and win the match no matter what. Show this scorecard to someone with all the details hidden, except the runs and the ball faced, and the person would call it a T20 game any given day.
Why is this win so significant, you ask? After all, it’s against Bangladesh, who are definitely not one of the mightiest cricketing teams in the world. And India are playing at home, with conditions suited according to our bowling attack with our crowd cheering behind us. Well, for these reasons I was also mildly interested in this series at first.
However, this victory is going to be one for the ages as it’s about the mindset that the Indian team displayed, the attitude of a team that would win against all odds, even the ones caused by Mother Nature. This Test will be in the history books as the one where the Indian batsmen didn’t care about any personal milestones or their wickets, the Team was above everything else. “The darker the night the brighter the stars” and brightest shone all eleven Indians. The poor ground management at Kanpur’s Green Park made India adapt and improvise to break records for fastest team 50, 100, 200, and 250 in Test cricket.
It will be remembered for the sheer confidence the team had in their bowlers that they would bowl Bangladesh out, and the absolute fearlessness India showed in declaring their first innings with just a 50-run lead. Chances are, Indian bowlers had already knocked off all 10 wickets by the time you reached your office today. And while writing this piece at the start of the 4th innings of the Test match, I am racing Indian batsmen as to who will finish the job.
This triumph is crucial for India in their bid to win the ICC Test Championship and they were just given 2 days out of 5 to get any sort of result. Turns out, India didn’t even need the full 2 days to annihilate their opponents. It was a Test won by India purely from the elite mindset, the kind of mentality that forms a culture to inspire generations of players. India had won the match in their heads even before the first ball was bowled, they just came to the field to guarantee a scorecard to prove it.
